iii? 


•>: 


sm^m 


YOGA 


TRANSFORMATION 


A  COMPARATIVE   STATEMENT   OF   THE   VARIOUS  RELIGIOUS 
DOGMAS   CONCERNING  THE  SOUL  AND  ITS  DESTINY, 
AND   OF   AKKADIAN,  HINDU,  TAOIST,  EGYP- 
TIAN,   HEBREW,    GREEK,    CHRISTIAN, 
MOHAMMEDAN,  JAPANESE 
AND   OTHER  MAGIC 


BY 

William  J.  Flagg 


"  This  has  often  come  upon  me  through  repeating  my  own  name  to  myself 
■  silently  till,  all  at  once,  as  it  were,  out  of  the  intensity  of  the  consciousness  of 
'  individuality,  the  individuality  itself  seemed  to  dissolve  and  fade  away  into 
'  boundless  being,  and  this  not  a  confused  state,  but  the  clearest  of  the  clearest,  the 
'  surest  of  the  surest,  utterly  beyond  words,  where  death  was  almost  a  laughable 
'  impossibility,  the  loss  of  personality  (if  so  it  were)  seeming  no  extinction,  but 
'  the  only  true  \iie."—TennysoK. 

^  '^i  s  r.  ^  >^<  y-- 

ff  99  Tan 

f  CTNIVERSTTr 


New  York 
THEOSOPHICAL    SOCIETY 

PUBLISHING    DEPT. 

244  LENOX  AVENUE,  -  NEW  YORK 

1898 


SSGfflTT 

Copyright,  189S 
(all  rights  reserved) 


Douglas  •Caislor  il  Co. 
■flAcw  ]]?orl; 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I.  Modern  Spiritualism  on  the  Soul i 

II.  Hindu  Souls 8 

III.  Egyptian  Souls i8 

IV.  Chaldean  Souls 27 

V.  Greek  and  Roman  Souls 32 

VI.  Neoplatonism  on  the  Soul 36 

VII.  Christian  Souls 49 

VIII.  Relic  Worship 58 

IX.  Chinese  Souls 62 

X.  Japanese  Souls 69 

XI.  The  Possibility  of  a  Spiritual  World  Considered.  80 
XII.  The  Possibility  of  a  Spiritual  World  Further 

Considered 85 

XIII.  The  Possibility  of  a  Spiritual  World  Further 

Considered  . . . ._ 94 

XIV.  The  Possibility  of  a  Spiritual  World  Further 

Considered 107 

XV.  Religion  in  General 125 

XVI.  The  Evolution  of  Social  Virtue 138 

XVII.  Hindu  Yoga 161 

XVIII.  Chinese  Yoga 205 

XIX.  Egyptian  Yoga. 217 

XX,  Akkadian  Yoga 226 

XXI.  Mohammedan  Yoga 232 

XXII.  Hebrew  Yoga 239 

XXIII.  Yoga  of  the  Essenes 254 

XXIV.  The  Roman  Stoics  as  Yogis 256 

XXV.  Christian  Yoga 258 

XXVI.  Yoga  in  General 293 

XXVII.  Results  of  Practice  and  Indications  of  Progress.  310 

XXVIII.  Earthly  Immortality 333 

XXIX.  Yoga  as  a  Process  of  Evolution 345 

XXX.  Conclusion 352 


PREFACE 


I  HAVE  written  this  book  to  help  myself  think  and  now 
publish  it  to  help  others  do  so.  It  is,  at  its  least,  a  call 
to  thought  and  an  aid  to  thinkers.  With  the  materials  I 
have  amassed,  and  now  put  at  their  disposal,  it  would 
be  strange  if  other  students  did  not  go  much  further 
than  I  have.  To  such  I  leave  many  a  problem  arising 
on  the  face  of  those  materials  that  I  have  not  been  able 
to  solve,  and  many  others  I  have  not  even  attempted  to 
assail.  Most  of  the  conclusions  reached  have  followed 
after  the  putting  on  paper  of  the  facts  which  are  their 
grounds,  and  the  most  important  theory  I  have  put  for- 
ward is  quite  opposed  to  my  former  preconceptions, 
quite  different  from  anything  I  had  an  idea  of  in  the 
beginning. 

More  than  a  half  century  ago  there  came  to  my  knowl- 
edge a  series  of  strange  occurrences  just  like  those  which 
a  few  years  afterwards  disturbed  the  quiet  of  the  village 
of  Hydesville,  and  which  are  at  this  time  disturbing  the 
quiet  of  scientific  people  the  world  over.  From  that 
time  to  this  I  have  been  an  observer  of  such  things 
and  all  other  phenomena  of  occult  origin.  Twenty-five 
years  ago,  without  having  been  in  the  meanwhile  able  to 
make  anything  out  of  them,  I  entered  on  a  rather  thor- 
ough course  of  reading  in  mystical  literature,  ancient 
and  modern,  and  have  continued  it  ever  since.  Fifteen 
years  ago,  baffled  as  much  as  ever,  I  undertook  to  write 


vi  PREFACE. 

out  some  results  of  my  observation  and  study,  to  see 
how  they  looked  on  paper.  But  it  was  only  scant  three 
years  ago  that  I  saw  my  way  clear  to  valuable  results, 
and  later  still  that  I  decided  to  publish  a  book  about 
them. 

If  the  space  devoted  to  the  various  religious  dogmas 
concerning  the  nature  and  destiny  of  the  soul  should  seem 
too  large  in  view  of  the  unsatisfactory  outcome,  it 
should  be  considered  that  religion  having  appropriated 
and  enveloped  magic — which  is  the  real  subject  of  the 
book — it  had  to  be  dug  into  and  through  in  order  to  get 
at  what  it  hid  as  overlying  rubbish  hides  a  treasure; 
and  such  readers  as  are  disposed  to  patiently  assist  at 
the  excavation  will  not,  I  fancy,  waste  their  time;  but 
those  who  think  otherwise  can  skip  two  chapters  (else- 
where indicated)  without  serious  breach  in  the  thread  of 
the  main  argument.  In  saying  "  the  unsatisfactory  out- 
come," I  do  not  mean  that  the  soul  is  not  worth  seeking 
for,  but  only  that  it  is  not  worth  while  to  seek  for  it  in 
religion — nor,  in  fact,  anywhere  else — that,  our  knowing 
apparatus  being  what  it  is,  one  who  shall  have  under- 
taken the  quest,  searching  for  the  Egyptian  soul,  in  pyra- 
mids and  caves  where  mummies  lie,  in  regions  of  the 
air  where  hawks  fly,  and  under  the  earth  where  Osiris 
holds  his  feasts — for  the  Greek  soul  in  the  stars — for  the 
Semite  soul  in  tombs  and  graves  and  the  prison  of  Allat 
— for  the  Hindu  soul  in  the  land  of  the  fathers  and  land 
of  the  gods,  through  its  series  of  re-births  and  in  the 
bosom  of  Brahman — for  the  Mohammedan  soul  in  Alla's 
hell  and  his  prophet's  paradise — for  the  soul  of  the  mod- 
ern spiritualist  in  a  spiritual  body  and  world — for  souls 
undergoing   metempsychosis,   in  bodies  of  reptiles  and 


PREFA  CE.  vii 

beasts — for  the  Christian  soul  in  the  raised-up  and 
restored  cadaver — will  in  the  end  be  apt  to  remain  con- 
tentedly where  of  old  the  Taoist  sage,  and  in  modern 
times  the  German  one  have  told  him  he  must  perforce 
abide;  namely,  on  the  hither  side  of  the  unknowable. 
But  if  he  do  thorough  work,  in  searching  through 
religion  he  will  have  come  upon  magic,  in  searching  for 
the  secret  of  magic  he  will  have  found  transformation, 
and  in  transformation  discovered  evolution. 


CHAPTER    I. 

MODERN    SPIRITUALISM    ON    THE    SOUL. 

An  enquiry  such  as  this  book  attempts,  into  the  nature 
and  destiny  of  the  soul  of  man,  must  needs  begin  with 
at  least  a  brief  review  of  the  theories  respecting  it  which 
have  been  offered  by  the  various  great  religions  of  the 
world,  of  which  the  oldest  of  all,  so  old  that  it  may  truly 
be  called  the  mother  of  the  others,  is  yet  so  new  also  that 
we  now  most  commonly  know  it  by  the  name  of  "  modern 
spiritualism." 

Belief  in  a  spiritual  world  contemporaneous  with  this 
natural  one,  and  a  duplicate  or  counterpart  of  it,  in 
which,  as  a  spirit,  endowed  with  a  body  which  is  in  like 
manner  a  duplicate  or  counterpart  of  his  natural  one, 
man  goes  after  death,  to  live  eternally,  is  as  old  as  the 
world  and  as  wide.  It  has  been  held  by  all  primitive 
peoples,  as  it  is  by  all  savages  now,  whether  having 
much  other  religion,  or  little,  or  none,  and  despite  its 
vagueness  has  lived  and  gone  along  with  all  forms  of 
faith,  whether  accepted  as  a  dogma  or  not,  aiding  to  sus- 
tain them,  furnishing  soil  for  their  growth,  so  far  as  they 
were  growths,  and  foundation  for  them  to  rest  on,  so  far 
as  they  were  built-up  structures.  It  is  the  earliest  in 
origin,  widest  in  extent,  most  persistent  in  continuance, 
and  really  the  best  proved  of  all  the  theories  ever  enter- 
tained concerning  the  state  of  man  after  death,  enter- 
tained by  the  learned  as  well  as  the  ignorant,  and  what- 
ever else  the  priests  may  have  exoterically  taught,  or 
esoterically  kept  to  themselves,  has  mingled  with  and 
adulterated  all  faiths.  As  believed  in  by  primitive  peo- 
ples of  old  and  savages  of  modern  times,  by  the  disciples 


2  MODERN  SPIRITUALISM   ON    THE    SOUL. 

of  Emanuel  Swedenborg,  and  by  all  the  modern  spirit- 
ualists except  the  Kardec  sect,  the  spiritual  world  is 
entered  into  immediately  after  death,  and  is  man's  final 
and  eternal  home,  but  when  adopted  into  systematically 
constructed  religions  it  has  been  given  a  subordinate 
place  and  a  limited  duration.  Most  of  these  consider 
man  as  having  three  parts,  namely,  a  natural  body  that 
is  material  and  perishable,  a  soul  that  is  immaterial  and 
imperishable  and  a  shade,  or  form  of  thin  matter,  such 
as  is  the  Karma  Rupa  of  the  Hindus,  the  spiritual  body 
of  the  Swedenborgians  and  Spiritualists,  the  shades  of 
the  Greeks  and  the  ghosts  of  all  times;  concerning  the 
disposition  made  of  these  it  will  appear  that  well  invented 
religions  invest  with  eternal  duration  the  soul,  it  alone, 
and  never  a  body  of  any  kind,  whether  of  spirit  or 
matter. 

Probable  Origiti  of  the  Belief  in  a  Spiritual  World. 

'Y\\&  facts  upon  which  the  belief  in  question  has  arisen 
are  as  real  as  any  in  nature.  Nothing  has  been  better 
verified  by  experience  or  more  insisted  on  in  history 
than  the  countless  phenomena  commonly  called  super- 
natural for  which  no  law  is  known  even  by  the  wisest, 
and  which,  for  that  reason,  modern  science  and  philos- 
ophy have  found  it  convenient  to  persistently  ignore 
and  deny,  in  hopes,  as  it  were,  of  thereby  forcing  them 
out  of  belief  and  making  them  as  occult  as  their  origin 
and  meaning  have  ever  been.  But  notwithstanding 
scientific  and  philosophic  simulated  scoi'n  and  real  igno- 
rance, the  facts  are  good  material  for  the  truth-seeker, 
and  their  interpretation  by  the  common  mind  is  as  plaus- 
ible, respectable  and  rational  as  could  be  expected,  all 
things  considered.  Apparitions,  sometimes  of  the  living, 
sometimes  of  the  dead,  have  always  abundantly  been 
seen,  and  never  were  more  common  than  they  are  now. 
Where  they  were  likenesses  of  persons  dead  it  was  easy 
to  suppose  that  by  the  primitive  men  they  should  be  taken 


MODERN  SPIRITUALISM   ON    THE    SOUL.  3 

to  be  the  very  originals  they  represented  and  as  sur- 
viving after  death,  and  the  belief  that  they  were  so  it  is 
easy  to  suppose  was  the  nucleus  on  which  the  belief  in 
spirit  immortality  formed  itself  later.  It  is  the  mere 
spectre  we  are  now  considering,  which,  though  a  perfect 
likeness  in  face,  form  and  movement  of  a  living  or  dead 
person,  comes  without  apparent  purpose,  and  shows  no 
meaning  in  expression  or  gesture,  moving  noiselessly, 
noticing  no  one,  perceivable  by  no  sense  but  the  sight, 
and  when  accosted  usually  vanishing;  letting  stand  aside 
for  the  present  those  others  which  come  with  an  apparent 
purpose,  as  when,  for  instance,  one  is  dressed  in  grave 
clothes,  to  signify  death,  or  in  wet  ones  to  signify  drown- 
ing, or  has  other  accessories  that  tell  a  story,  and  with 
these  others  which,  as  if  to  prove  themselves  not  merely 
phantasms  but  real  presences,  make  themselves  heard,  and 
sometimes  felt.  The  mere  spectre  seems  to  be  without  life 
or  intelligence,  very  much  as  classic  literature  describes 
the  mere  shade  (to  which  its  soul  had  been  after  death  tem- 
porarily united)  when  it  was  finally  abandoned  to  endure 
an  eternity  of  non-existence  in  Hades.  In  fact,  it  comes 
closely  down  to  the  natural,  and  closely  down  to  the 
artificial  too,  so  much  so  that  M.  D'Assier,  a  comtist 
and  materialist,  in  his  late  book  on  "Posthumous 
Humanity,"  insists  that  it  is  not  only  natural  but  ma- 
terial as  well,  while  of  late  other  materialists  have  raised 
ghosts  by  artificial  means,  which  they  claim  to  be  as 
good  as  any,  and  fondly  think  in  doing  so  they  have 
exploded  supernaturalism  forever.  That  in  the  minds 
of  primitive  men  even  such  stupid  shadows  could  induce 
a  belief  in  a  world  of  spirits  is  not  hard  to  think;  it 
would  be  hard  to  think  otherwise.  To  such  the  con- 
clusion must  have  been  irresistible  that  forms  so  clearly 
shown  to  the  sight  must  be  discernible  by  the  other 
senses  also,  and  have  life,  thought  and  feeling  like  the 
once  living,  thinking  and  feeling  men  they  stood  for; 
that  beings    thus    supposed,  who  came   and  went,  and 


4  MODERN  SPIRITUALISM  ON    THE    SOUL. 

came  and  went  again,  must  come  from  and  goto  a  some- 
where of  which  they  were  habitual  residents,  and  which 
somewhere  might  be  in  the  skies  that  daily  and  hourly 
exhibited  to  those  primitive  minds  even  more  wonderful 
things,  or  in  the  earth,  also  full  of  wonders,  now  heav- 
ing and  shuddering  in  earthquakes  and  now  spouting  fire 
in  volcanoes,  in  any  case  a  region  out  of  reach  of  man's 
powers  of  exploration.  Such  a  belief,  once  induced,  no 
matter  how  arising — whether  in  the  way  supposed  or 
some  other  does  not  affect  the  argument — this  most  im- 
portant consequence  must  have  followed:  thenceforth 
all  messages  to  men  from  the  occult  powers,  supposing 
such  to  be,  and  to  send  messages,  must  needs  conform 
to  it  or  go  unheeded;  especially  must  conform  to  it  such 
as  related  to  the  loved  and  mourned  for  dead.  And  just 
as  pent-up  waters  escaping  from  the  dam  that  held  them 
must  follow  the  course  of  the  first  little  rill  that  finds  a 
way  over  its  crest,  deepening  and  widening  its  channel 
as  they  flow,  so  did  ghost  and  ghost-land  belief,  however 
slender  its  beginning,  in  time  make  place  for  itself  in 
human  belief.  This  but  states  a  principle  governing  all 
teaching,  namely,  that  it  must  be  fitted  to  the  recep- 
tivity of  those  who  are  to  be  taught.  Respect  must  be 
had  to  their  beliefs  and  unbeliefs,  knowledge  and  igno- 
rance, their  religion,  morality,  superstitions  and  preju- 
dices, only  disturbing  these  so  far  as  is  necessary  to 
convey  the  intended  instruction.  Just  as  molten  metal 
has  to  submit  to  whatever  limitations  the  mould  it  is 
poured  into  imposes,  revelations,  to  gain  reception  have 
to  adapt  themselves  to  receptivities.  It  is  the  same 
even  with  discoveries  men  make  in  material  nature  prov- 
able to  the  senses;  if  they  come  out  of  time  they  have 
to  bide  their  time  for  acceptance  into  scientific  belief. 
In  view  of  this  Moses  was  right  when  he  gave  the  Jews 
a  cosmogony  which  they  could,  in  their  intellectual  con- 
dition, understand,  and  a  morality  not  too  good  for 
them  to  live  up  to,  although  as  priest  of  Egypt  he  must 


MODERN  SPIRITUALISM  ON   THE   SOUL.  5 

have  been  learned  in  all  that  was  taught  to  Solon  and 
Pythagoras,  and  known  a  morality  as  high  and  pure  as 
theirs. 

Father  Abraham,  always  ready  to  receive  his  god  Jeho- 
vah, certainly  would  never  have  allowed  himself  to  be 
dictated  to  by  Osiris  or  Bel.  The  apparition  in  the  con- 
ventional form  of  Bacchus  which  gave  the  warning  that 
saved  Alexander's  army  from  being  destroyed  in  a  night 
would  have  failed  of  its  mission  had  it  personated  one  of 
the  gods  of  the  enemy.  So,  too,  when  the  city  of  Aphutus, 
being  besieged  by  King  Lysander,  was  saved  by  a  dream 
sent  to  him  by  Jupiter  Ammon,  as  he  believed,  in  obedi- 
ence to  which  he  raised  the  siege  and  rapidly  retreated, 
the  King  heeded  the  warning  because  it  came  from  a  deity 
he  was  acquainted  with.  Especially  is  it  requisite  that 
the  accepted  cosmogony  of  the  times  be  humored.  The 
scriptures  of  the  Jews  humored  theirs,  a  poor  one  it  is 
true,  but  the  only  one  they  had.  To  them  the  earth 
remained  fixed  and  the  heavens  moved  round  it,  and  Jeho- 
vah let  them  have  it  so,  although  he  must  have  known 
better,  since  the  Book  of  Job,  truly  rendered,  says  he  him- 
self "  hung  the  earth  in  its  sockets."  Had  the  fair  spirit 
of  the  Spring  of  Lourdes  made  herself  apparent  to  the 
little  girl  with  sore  eyes  as  her  grandmother,  the  chapel 
that  has  since  arisen  there,  begemmed  with  gifts  from 
thousands  of  pilgrims  whom  the  waters  have  healed, 
would  not  be  seen  to-day,  but  in  its  stead  an  iron  fence 
and  a  policeman,  such  as  the  priests  did,  in  fact,  cause 
to  be  placed  there,  from  fear  that  anything  miraculous 
would  in  modern  France  only  bring  ridicule  upon  them, 
until  its  good-for-naught  of  an  Emperor  Napoleon  III.  by 
decree  made  them  let  the  thing  go  on.  The  Spirit,  there- 
fore, wisely  gave  as  her  name,  when  under  direction  of 
her  priest  the  child  asked  for  it,  as  "the  Immaculate 
Conception,"  a  droll  phrase  to  make  a  name  of,  to  be 
sure,  but  a  popular  catchword  with  good  Catholics  just 
then  when  the  Church  had  woke  up  to  the  importance  of 


6  MODERN  SPIRITUALISM   ON    THE    SOUL. 

the  question  how  the  maternal  grandmother  of  Jesus  came 
by  her  baby.  The  beautiful,  if  improper,  Aspasia,  threat- 
ened with  serious  disfigurement  by  a  growth  upon  her 
face,  prayed  to  Venus  to  heal  it,  in  response  to  which  the 
goddess  came  in  person  and  prescribed  an  unction  to  be 
made  by  pulverizing  a  dried  rose  from  a  chaplet  then 
hanging  on  her  image  in  the  temple,  which  being  done 
not  only  cured,  but  made  her  more  beautiful  then  ever. 
But  whether  a  goddess  Venus  ever  ruled  in  earth  or  heaven 
remained  as  doubtful  afterward  as  before.  In  fact,  if  we 
view  these  two  last-named  spirits  as  objective  realities,  it 
is  conceivable  that  the  ancient  Goddess  of  Love  and  the 
modern  Lady  of  the  Spring  were  one  and  the  same  being. 
The  Hindus  make  their  god  Siva  say,  pray  to  whatever 
god  you  please,  I  will  answer  your  prayer,  which  is  recog- 
nizing diversity  of  receptivities  and  acknowledging  the 
necessity  of  recognizing  them,  and  at  the  same  time 
proving  Great  Siva  to  be  high  above  jealousy  and  an 
example  to  some  other  gods  we  wot  of. 

And  so  the  idea  of  a  world  of  spirits  peopled  by  the 
dead  having  once  got  hold  on  the  minds  of  men,  after 
that  the  entire  body  of  mystical  revelation  must  neces- 
sarily ratify  and  confirm  it. 

We  have  been  considering  the  effect  of  the  mere 
spectre  on  the  simple  minds  of  primitive  men  in  causing 
them  to  believe  in  a  world  of  spirits,  a  result  which 
might  not  have  happened  to  instructed  minds,  but  when 
those  occult  powers  which  manifest  an  interest  in  human 
affairs  by  messages  of  instruction,  warning  and  guidance, 
adapting  their  modes  of  communication  to  that  primitive 
belief,  and,  so  to  say,  taking  advantage  of  it,  spoke  by 
the  mouths  of  the  spectres,  put  meaning  into  their  eyes 
and  expression  into  their  actions,  and  through  them 
predicted  truly  the  future,  prescribed  medicines  that 
cured,  and  gave  comfort  to  the  bereaved,  not  only  the 
simple,  but  the  instructed  must  be  excused  if  they 
believed.     Instances  to  illustrate  this  are  common  to- 


MODERN  SPIRITUALISM   ON    THE    SOUL.  7 

day.  Intelligent  men  who,  like  the  body  of  educated 
people  of  European  race  during  the  last  two  centuries, 
have  ignored  all  such  manifestations  of  the  occult,  not 
deigning  to  honor  them  so  far  as  to  disbelieve  them, 
when  at  length  confronted  with  the  facts  in  a  way  that 
compels  belief  are  apt  to  accept  not  only  the  facts  them- 
selves, but  the  interpretation  which  believers  in  them  had 
commonly  put  upon  them,  namely,  that  they  prove  a 
spiritual  immortality.  And  such  of  them  as  have  rejected 
religion  on  the  ground  that  its  origin  was  in  the  super- 
natural only  and  the  supernatural  impossible,  as  soon  as 
they  come  to  believe  in  the  supernatural  at  all,  will  be 
apt  to  run  and  join  the  nearest  church.  Three  college- 
bred  men,  all  of  them  confirmed  skeptics,  all  near  sixty 
years  of  age,  and,  as  veteran  lawyers,  experienced  in 
examining  proofs,  one  a  brilliant  orator  and  ex-governor, 
one  a  brilliant  editor,  an  author  and  ex-judge,  and  the 
other  a  brilliant  conversationalist,  attended  together, 
some  twelve  years  ago,  a  series  of  seances  held  by  Mrs. 
Hollis-Billing  which  had  the  effect  to  convince  them  that 
the  supernatural  was  possible.  Thus  far  one  identical 
series  of  observed  facts  brought  three  men  to  one  and 
the  same  conclusion.  And  what  next?  One,  who  had 
been  bred  in  the  Catholic  Church,  returned  again  to  her 
bosom,  and  ten  years  later  died  happy  in  her  communion 
and  faith;  one,  whose  wife  happened  to  be  an  old-school 
Presbyterian,  incontinently  went  and  entered  into  that 
communion,  became  one  of  its  shining  lights,  and  died 
in  it ;  while  the  other  relapsed  into  his  original  skepticism 
and  died  an  unbeliever. 


CHAPTER  II. 

PIINDU    SOULS. 

In  its  essential  nature  Hinduism  is  beyond  question  the 
best,  greatest  and  most  admirable  religious  and  philo- 
sophical system  in  the  world.  Its  beginning  was  too  early 
for  its  age  to  be  computed,  and,  unlike  all  the  other  great 
religions  of  antiquity,  it  has  endured  down  to  the  present 
time,  and  is  in  full  life  to-day.  Its  votaries,  because 
largely  restrained  by  its  beneficent  teachings  from  en- 
gaging in  wars,  whose  attendants  are  forever  pestilence 
and  famine,  and  of  the  doctrine,  inherited  from  still 
more  early  ancestor  worship,  that  many  sons  are  advan- 
tageous to  the  dead  father  of  them,  have  multiplied  by 
hundreds  of  millions  on  the  soil  of  India  while  its  off- 
shoot. Buddhism,  has  spread  over  and  now  covers  with 
other  hundreds  of  millions,  the  larger  and  more  enlight- 
ened parts  of  Asia,  all  of  them  holding  steadfast  to  the 
faith  of  their  fathers,  despite  the  persuasions  of  Christian 
missionaries,  however  earnest  or  well  backed  by  ships  of 
war.  And  there  can  be  no  better  proof  that  Hinduism 
is  in  full  life  to-day  than  the  fact  that  pious  Hindus  are 
actually  turning  the  tables  on  us,  by  sending  hither 
learned  and  eloquent  teachers  to  convert  their  would-be 
converters,  teachers  whom  many  of  our  learned  men 
listen  to  with  attention  and  profit,  because  they  have 
indeed  something  to  tell. 

Hinduism  rests  on  a  body  of  scriptures  of  varying  de- 
grees of  authority.  Of  these  the  Upanishads,  a  part  of 
the  Vedas,  are  firmly  believed  to  be  divine  revelations,  to 
which  even  the  highest  philosophy  must  conform,  and 
the  best  work  done  in  the  less  authoritative  writings  of 


HINDU  SOULS.  9 

saints  and  sages  has  been  in  efforts  to  reconcile  them 
with  reason  and  with  each  other.  Of  the  Upanishads 
Max  Mtiller  in  his  Vedanta  Philosophy,  p.  23,  says:  "  The 
impression  they  leave  on  the  mind  is  that  they  are  sud- 
den intuitions  or  inspirations,  which  sprang  up  here 
and  there  and  were  collected  afterwards,  and  yet  there 
is  system  in  all  these  dreams,  there  is  background  to  all 
these  visions.  There  is  even  an  abundance  of  technical 
terms  used  by  different  speakers  so  exactly  in  the  same 
sense  that  one  feels  certain  that  behind  all  these  flashes 
of  religious  and  philosophical  thought  there  is  a  distant 
past,  a  dark  background  of  which  we  shall  never  know  the 
beginning."  The  same  good  authority  tells  us  that  ety- 
mologically  the  word  Upanishad  means  "sitting  near  a 
person,"  which  cannot  but  remind  us  that  the  French 
word  stance  has  been  adopted  to  designate  attendance  at 
a  modern  spiritualistic  circle  and  must  favor  the  belief 
that  these  Hindu  scriptures  were  revelations  made  to 
circles  of  ancestor  worshippers  of  old,  by  automatic  writ- 
ing, trance  speaking,  etc.,  just  as  mediumistic  "communi- 
cations "  are  made  to  us  now.  It  is  also  worthy  of  note, 
that  like  most  such  communications,  the  Upanishads  are 
quite  undevotional.  Says  Miiller,  page  16  of  the  same 
work:  "  These  Upanishads  are  philosophical  treatises, 
and  their  fundamental  principle  might  seem  with  us  to  be 
subversive  of  all  religion.  In  these  Upanishads  the  whole 
ritual  and  sacrificial  system  of  the  Veda  is  not  only 
ignored,  but  directly  rejected  as  useless,  nay,  mischievous. 
The  ancient  gods  of  the  Veda  are  no  longer  recognized. 
And  yet  these  Upanishads  are  looked  upon  as  perfectly 
orthodox,  nay,  as  the  highest  consummation  of  the  Brah- 
manic  religion."  On  page  113  we  read  that  most  of 
Buddha's  doctrines  were  really  those  of  the  Upanishads. 
There  is  no  esoteric  aspect  to  Hinduism.  Excepting  the 
lowest  caste,  who  would  hardly  care  for  or  be  able  to 
appropriate  its  higher  teaching,  all  are  free  to  draw  from 
the  abundant   sources    of  its    wisdom    supplied    by  the 


10  HINDU  SOULS. 

sacred  writings  or  the  oral  instructions  of  living  sages, 
as  much  as  they  are  mentally  and  morally  fit  to  receive, 
and  as  fast  as  they  become  so  fit.  Symbols,  idols  and 
even  the  gods  above  are  merely  aids  to  thought  and  con- 
templation, and  devotional  worship  of  them  but  an  intro- 
ductory discipline  for  preparing  the  worshipper  to  do 
without  them.  The  more  a  Hindu  knows  of  his  religion 
the  less  devout  he  is;  the  perfected  Yogi  does  not  pray 
at  all,  he  only  meditates  on  what  he  wants  and  it  comes 
to  him.  But  it  is  a  graded  religion,  wherein  each  grade 
of  intelligence  can  find  its  fitting  temple  there  to  remain, 
content  with  the  comfort  it  affords  him,  or  going  up 
higher  when  worship  there  has  developed  him  beyond  its 
power  to  satisfy  him.  A  Hindu  may  attend  on  temple 
gods  perhaps  for  ten  years,  and  then  having  by  that 
means  rendered  himself  so  spiritual  as  not  to  need  them, 
abandon  them  forever.  "  This  was  brought  about,"  says 
Miiller,  page  i6,  "  by  the  recognition  of  a  very  simple  fact 
which  nearly  all  other  religions  seem  to  have  ignored. 
It  was  recognized  in  India  from  very  early  times  that  the 
religion  of  a  man  cannot  be  and  ought  not  to  be  the  same 
as  that  of  a  child ;  and  again  that  the  religious  ideas  of  an 
old  man  must  differ  from  those  of  an  active  man  of  the 
world."  From  such  a  system  toleration  necessarily 
flowed.  Hinduism  punishes  no  man  for  his  religious  faith. 
In  the  Bhagavadgita  the  Supreme  Spirit  says  as  gener- 
ously as  Siva,  lately  quoted,  "even  those  who  worship 
idols,  worship  me." 

God 

Consistent  with  the  foregoing  is  the  instituting  of  two 
Brahmans,  the  one,  an  impersonal  principle,  exalted  by 
negation  of  attributes  quite  out  of  sight,  an  //  and  not  a 
He;  the  other,  masculine  and  personal,  invested  with  all 
divine  qualities  and  actively  engaged  in  ruling  the  world. 
The  higher  god  is  found  in  only  well  elaborated  religions; 
the  lower  is  found  in  every  religion.     Zeus,  the  Egyptian 


HINDU  SOULS.  11 

Osiris,  the  Assyrian  Bel,  the  Phoenician  Bacchus  and  the 
Jewish  Jehovah  were  of  these  latter. 

The  Cosmos. 

The  impersonal  Brahman  creates  the  Universe  by 
breathing  it  out,  and  again  destroys  it  by  breathing  it 
in,  both  the  creation  and  destruction  being  periodical. 
This  may  be  called  the  real  Universe,  which  is  Brahman 
itself,  and  not  merely  pervaded  by  it.  The  Universe,  as 
man  knows  it,  is  the  creature  of  mdin  savidya,  Nescience, 
Ignorance;  in  fact,  his  knowledge  of  things  consist  in  his 
ignorance  of  them,  each  one's  individual  ignorance  being 
helped  by  the  erroneous  thought  of  the  race  collectively, 
amounting  to  something  like  a  cosmic  force.  Which 
suggests  Berkeley's  statement  that  each  one  of  us  per- 
ceives as  really  existing  what  does  not  exist,  not  merely 
by  force  of  his  own  thinking  so,  but  by  the  aid  also  of 
the  concentrated  thought  of  all  mankind. 

The  Origin  of  Man. 
Every  religion  has  a  different  account  to  give  of  the 
reasons  which  moved  its  creative  god  to  make  man,  as 
well  as  of  the  way  in  which  he  did  it.  As  to  the  reason 
that  prevailed  with  the  Hindu  creator,  "  we  are  told  that 
Pragapate  (Visva)  stood  alone  in  the  beginning,  that  he 
had  no  happiness  when  alone,  and  that  meditating  on 
himself  he  created  many  creatures.  He  looked  on  them 
and  saw  they  were  like  stone,  without  understanding, 
and  standing  about  like  lifeless  posts.  He  had  no  hap- 
piness, and  thought  that  he  would  enter  into  them  that 
they  might  awake."  Thus  it  may  be  said  that  man  was 
made  that  God  might  be  happy.  As  to  the  way  it  was 
done,  in  the  Upanishad  treating  of  it  various  details  are 
given,  which  are,  however,  included  in  the  following 
general  statement,  same  page:  "O  Saint,  this  body  is 
without  intelligence,  like  a  cart.  By  whom  has  this  body 
been  made  intelligent,  and  who  is  the  driver  of  it?    Then 


12  HINDU  SOULS. 

Pragapate  answers  that  it  is  He  who  is  standing  above, 
passionless  amid  the  objects  of  the  world,  endless,  im- 
perishable, unborn  and  independent;  that  it  is  Brahman 
that  made  this  body  intelligent,  and  is  the  driver  of  it." 
It  is  the  higher  Brahman  which  does  this,  of  which  man 
is,  so  to  speak,  the  manifoldness. 

Nature  of  the  Soul. 

According  to  Hindu  belief,  the  soul  is  "  neither  our 
body  nor  our  minds,  not  even  our  thoughts,  of  which 
most  philosophers  are  so  proud,  but  all  of  these  are  con- 
ditions merely  to  which  it  has  to  submit,  as  fetters  by 
which  it  is  chained,  nay,  as  clouds  by  which  it  is  dark- 
ened, so  as  to  lose  the  sense  of  its  substantial  oneness 
with  God." 

Soul  is  Brahman  and  Brahman  is  soul.  Soul  has  but 
three  qualities — it  is,  it  perceives  and  it  enjoys.  But  the 
word  "  Atman,"  commonly  translated  soul,  is  better  ren- 
dered as  Self,  whether  regarded  in  its  divine  or  human 
aspect,  by  knowing  which  we  are  more  helped  to  a  com- 
prehension of  what  in  our  terminology  must  still  be 
called,  for  want  of  a  better  phrase,  the  union  of  the  soul 
with  God,  than  we  could  be  by  a  whole  chapter  of  ex- 
planation. The  importance  of  this  distinction  is  made 
to  appear  by  the  following  passages  from  the  Upanishads : 
"In  the  beginning  there  was  Self;"  "He,  therefore,  who 
knows  the  Self,  after  having  become  quiet,  subdued, 
satisfied,  patient  and  collected,  sees  self  in  Self,  sees  all 
as  Self;"  "The  Self,  smaller  than  small,  greater  than 
great,  is  hidden  in  the  heart  of  the  creature;"  "  Verily  a 
husband  is  not  dear  that  you  may  love  the  husband,  but 
that  you  may  love  the  Self,  therefore  the  husband  is 
dear." 

Earthly  Life  an  Evil. 
Like  all   civilized   peoples,   except    our    three  Jewish 
sects  of  Jews,  Christians  and  Mohammedans,  the  Hindus 
believe  undoubtingly  that  the  life  of  man  on  earth  con- 


HINDU   SOULS.  13 

sists  of  a  succession  of  lives  of  one  soul  in  many  bodies, 
lives  which  are  not  blessings  but  curses,  and  will  con- 
tinue to  succeed  each  other  in  a  vicious  round  that  must 
be  unending  while  the  world  lasts,  unless  the  sufferer, 
by  a  resolute  renunciation  of  the  will  to  live,  and  yoga 
practice  soon  to  be  described,  can  slip  out  of  it  and  by  a 
short  path  get  into  the  bosom  of  Brahman, 

The  Land  of  the  Fathers. 

As  a  place  of  demure  for  the  Hindu  soul  between  re- 
incarnations a  portion  of  the  old  spiritual  world  of  Vedic 
hymns  is  appropriated.  It  is  called  "the  land  of  the 
fathers,"  and  is  reached  by  "  the  pathway  of  the  fathers," 
which  means  a  life  of  good  works,  charitable  or  devo- 
tional. There  it  is  that  clothed  in  the  "subtle  bodies  " 
they  wore  under  their  fleshly  ones  souls  enjoy  refuge 
from  the  ills  of  earth  life  until  they  have  exhausted  the 
stock  of  acquired  merit  that  gave  them  admission,  after 
which  they  must  return  to  earth,  enter  new  bodies  and 
undergo  renewed  tribulation.  It  is  while  tarrying  in 
this  paradise  that  they  receive  the  devotional  offerings 
of  their  surviving  descendants,  in  the  form  of  sacrifices 
and  feasts,  and  which  they  repay  with  guardian  counsel 
and  care. 

The  land  of  the  fathers  corresponds  to  the  spiritual 
world  of  Swedenborg  and  modern  spiritualism,  as  the 
"subtle  body"  temporarily  worn  as  above  does  to  the 
spiritual  body  in  which,  according  to  these  the  unreturn- 
ing  soul  exists  eternally,  and  as  it  is  presumable  it  was 
believed  to  do  by  the  primitive  Hindus  while  yet  ancestor 
worship  was  their  only  religion. 

The  Land  of  the  Gods. 

This  is  a  higher  paradise  than  the  other,  which  mere 

good  works  will  not  win,  appropriated  to  ascetics  who 

have  gone  so  far  on  the  way  to  final  deliverance  from  all 

life  as  to  have  become  unfitted  for  earthly  life.     In  the 


14  HINDU  SOULS. 

land  of  the  gods,  the  subtle  body  is  still  worn.  This  is 
not  cast  aside  until  final  enfranchisement  from  all  em- 
bodiment is  obtained,  which  can  be  done  without  return 
to  earth,  for  it  seems  yoga  can  be  practiced  in  the  land 
of  the  gods  as  well  as  here  below. 

Karvia. 

The  doctrine  of  Karma,  or  the  subjection  of  the  soul 
in  a  given  earth  life  to  conditions  having  a  punitive,  dis- 
ciplinary and  compensatory  relation  to  its  conditions  and 
actions  in  a  former  one  is  something  superadded  to  the 
doctrine  of  re-incarnation  and  not  necessarily  connected 
with  it.  Hindu  teachers  present  it  as  resulting  by  the 
automatic  working  of  the  law  of  cause  and  effect,  whereby, 
without  calling  in  the  aid  of  a  presiding  deity,  sin  com- 
mitted in  one  life  necessarily  causes  a  corresponding  pun- 
ishment in  another,  error  in  one  brings  about  its  own 
correction  in  another,  and  hardship  in  one  induces  com- 
pensating advantage  in  another.  As  Plotinus  states  the 
same  principle  in  the  Enneads,  ii.  474:  "The  divine  law 
is  inevitable  and  has  the  power  to  carry  its  judgment  into 
effect."  But  by  divine  law  he  means,  as  he  writes  in 
the  Enneads,  ii.  291,  the  law  of  nature.  No  acknowl- 
edged facts  prove  this  Karma  doctrine  to  be  true.  It  is 
usually  defended  by  appeal  to  some  law  of  compensation 
by  which  human  conditions  which  are  so  unequal,  when 
viewed  within  the  range  of  a  single  life,  are  intended  to 
be  averaged  up,  so  that  conditions  of  wealth  and  poverty, 
health  and  sickness,  grandeur  and  abasement  shall  be 
equalized,  and  the  dealings  of  God  with  man  justified. 
But  the  doctrine  is  defective  and  inconsistent  with  itself; 
to  minds  of  the  common  sort  this  gloss  put  upon  it  to 
make  it  presentable  can  hardly  bring  conviction.  It  is 
easier  to  see  in  it  a  convenient  and  most  effective  priestly 
device  for  keeping  the  vulgar  in  order,  and  to  understand 
how,  that  being  so,  it  was  set  up  as  a  religious  dogma, 
than  to  find  for  it  any  scientific  basis. 


HINDU  SOULS.  15 

Yoga  in  Hinduism. 
Like  our  own  word  religion,  taken  in  its  original  sense, 
yoga  means  junction,  but  to  the  Hindu  believer  it  means 
more  than  to  any  other,   signifying  nothing   less    than 
this,  that  having  always  been  Brahman,  a  man,  by  means 
of  certain  practices,  comes  to  know  it — that's  all.     For  a 
soul  to  become  God  is  more  than  is    compassed  by  the 
word  in  its  simple  sense,   but  it  is  less  than  a  Hindu 
means  when  he  pronounces  it.     For  it  to  be  absorbed  in 
God  is  still  less.     For  a  soul,  by  works  of  grace  or  other 
means,  to  raise  itself  to  the  level  of  God,  and  be  united 
to  Him  in  whatever  way  conceivable,  is  still  less.     Yoga 
makes  the  soul  to  know  that  from  eternity  unto  eternity 
it  is  God,  that,  as  Sankara  states  it,  "it  has  beco^ne  God 
by  being  God."     The  process  by  which  one  attains  to  the 
knowledge  that  makes  him  consciously  Brahman  will  be 
given  at  length  later  on.     For  the  present,  it  is  enough 
to  say  that  it  consists  in  renouncing  the  will  to  live,  and 
all  earthly  allurements  and  interests,  and  in  solitude  and 
quietude  holding  the  mind  to  meditations  such  as  will 
best  concentrate    it,    and    thereby  reduce   the    flow  of 
thought  to  the  least  possible  point,  so  that,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  a  Hindu  sage,  the  man  "  is  as  it  were  delivered 
from  his  mind."      Yoga  may  be  practiced  either  with  or 
without   devotion.     The   manuals   of  Yoga   are    mostly 
made  up  from  the  Upanishads,  which  are  philosophical 
and  magical,  rather  than  religious  works.     The  priest  is 
not  called  in  nor  the  temple  resorted  to.     Alone  in  the 
forest,   the   seeker  after  enfranchisement  goes  through 
mental  and  physical  exercises  that  have  their  beginning 
and  end  within  his  own  body  and  mind.     Postures  are 
carefully  taken,  but  kneeling  is  not  one  of  them.     The 
eyes  are  turned  in  this  direction  and  that,  but  not  to 
heaven,  not  higher  than  the  forehead  or  the  top  of  the 
brain.     Word   formulas  are  repeated,   but  they  are  not 
prayers.     In  his  early  religious  life,  perhaps,  the  recluse 


16  HINDU  SOULS. 

has  concentrated  his  mind  on  God  Siva  in  the  sky  or  his 
image  in  the  temple,  but  now  he  directs  it  to  this  and 
that  part  of  his  own  body,  or  on  some  one  point  of  fact 
or  thought  or  thing,  or  on  simple  vacuity,  the  best  of  all. 

The  doctrine  is  that  Yoga  operates  the  perfecting  of 
the  body,  and  such  perfecting  Plotinus  no  doubt  had  in 
mind  when,  in  the  Enneads,  ii.  298,  he  wrote:  "If  each 
body  were  as  perfect  as  the  Universe  is,  it  would  be 
completely  sufficient  unto  itself.  It  would  have  no 
danger  to  fear,  and  the  soul  which  is  present  in  it,  instead 
of  being  present  there,  could  communicate  life  to  it 
without  quitting  the  intelligible  world."  And  being 
thus  an  affair  of  the  body,  in  bodily  life  alone,  either 
physical  or  spiritual,  must  yoga  work  be  done.  But  the 
striving  and  waiting  that  is  to  lead  the  soul  out  of  the 
darkness  that  hides  it  from  itself  into  the  light  that 
reveals  its  eternal  godship  may  not  accomplish  its  end 
in  one  life,  nor  perhaps  in  more  than  one.  Time  is 
required  for  all  the  operations  of  nature,  and  yoga  is  a 
natural  operation.  As  it  goes  on  certain  miraculous 
powers  are  developed,  but  the  true  yogi  seldom  exerts 
them.  To  him  they  are  like  flowers  by  the  wayside  to 
one  who  hastens  on  a  long  journey.  They  tell  him  the 
end  is  near,  but  the  gathering  of  them  would  hinder  him 
in  reaching  it.  The  enfranchisement,  when  at  last  it  is 
gained,  finds  the  soul  still  bound  to  a  body,  and  then 
there  is  a  being  "whose  feet,"  in  the  words  of  Plotinus, 
"touch  the  earth  while  his  head  lifts  itself  above  the 
sky,"  and  this  consciously. 

Of  such  beings  wonderful  stories  are  told  and  believed 
in  India,  for  they  are  there  held  to  be  more  than  demi- 
gods. They  determine  the  duration  of  their  own  lives 
as  men,  and  sometimes  indefinitely  extend  them.  Some- 
times they  largely  influence  the  affairs  of  men,  sometimes 
they  bodily  vanish  and  sometimes  drop  the  body  in 
death,  as  unenfranchised  souls  do.  And  though  thus 
becoming  completely  rid  of  the  flesh,  some  have,  after 


HINDU  SOULS.  17 

long  lapses  of  time,  voluntarily  and  consciously  re- 
embodied  themselves  and  returned  as  messiahs  to  endure 
humanity  for  the  good  of  humanity. 

The  points  of  difference  between  the  great  sect  of  Bud- 
dhism, with  its  400  millions  of  followers  and  its  parent 
Hinduism,  though  in  many  respects  they  are  important, 
are  still  not  so  for  the  purposes  of  this  our  enquiry,  but 
the  following  statement  of  a  Buddhist  of  the  Ceylon 
school,  found  in  the  "Buddhist  Catechism,"  of  Subhadra 
Bikshu,  S.  150,  is  well  worth  quoting: 

Question  :  "  What  is  the  main  difference  between  the  doc- 
trine af  Buddha  and  other  religions  ?" 

Answer:  "Buddhism  teaches  the  highest  kindliness 
and  wisdom  without  a  personal  God;  the  highest  under- 
standing without  revelation;  a  moral  order  of  the  world 
and  just  compensation  which  are  of  necessity  consum- 
mated on  the  principle  of  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  our 
own  being;  a  continuity  of  individuality  without  an  im- 
mortal soul ;  an  eternal  beatitude  without  a  local  heaven ; 
a  possibility  of  redemption  without  a  vicarious  redeemer; 
a  salvation  at  which  each  one  is  his  own  savior,  and 
which  can  be  attained  by  one's  own  strength,  and  already 
gained  in  this  life  and  upon  this  earth  without  prayer, 
sacrifice,  penance,  and  outward  rites,  without  conse- 
crated priests,  without  the  mediation  of  saints,  and 
without  the  action  of  divine  grace  " — namely,  by  the 
practice  of  Yoga. 


CHAPTER  III. 

EGYPTIAN    SOULS. 

The  Egyptian  religion  is  a  dead  one,  and  considering 
how  many  thousand  years  it  prevailed  it  is  not  strange 
that  accounts  given  of  it  should  vary  and  conflict,  even 
those  afforded  by  its  own  records  and  monuments.  In  a 
book  of  uncertain  age  and  origin,  but  for  which  great 
antiquity  and  authority  is  claimed,  entitled  "  The  Virgin 
of  the  World,"  by  "  Hermes  Trismegistus,"  we  read  that 
God  formed  out  of  a  certain  something  to  which  the 
name  of  "self-consciousness"  is  given,  "myriads  of 
souls  "  and  "traced  the  limits  of  their  sojourn  on  the 
heights  of  nature,  so  that  they  might  turn  the  wheel 
according  to  the  laws  of  order  and  of  their  wise  discre- 
tion, for  the  joy  of  their  father,"  and  commanded  them 
thus:  "Quit  not  the  place  assigned  to  you  by  my  will. 
The  abode  which  awaits  you  is  Heaven,  with  its  galaxy 
of  stars  and  its  thrones  of  virtue.  If  you  attempt  any 
transgression  against  my  decree,  I  swear  by  my  sacred 
breath,  by  that  elixir  of  which  I  formed  you,  and  by 
my  creative  hands,  that  I  will  speedily  forge  for  you 
chains  and  cast  you  into  punishment."  And  then  he 
formed  living  beings  of  human  shape  (living  and  pro- 
creating, but  without  souls).  Then  he  gave  the  rest  of 
his  stuff  to  the  loftiest  souls,  inhabiting  the  region  of 
the  gods  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  stars,  being  those 
just  named,  saying:  "Work,  my  children,  offspring  of 
my  nature,  take  the  residue  of  my  task,  and  let  each  one 
of  you  make  beings  in  his  image.  I  will  give  you  the 
models." 

The  souls  thus  commanded  set  to  work  and  created 


EGYPTIAN  SOULS.  19 

the  different  races  of  animals  below  the  degree  of  man; 
and  thereupon  became  proud  of  their  skill,  and  in 
their  pride  disregarded  the  command  to  remain  where 
they  were  placed  and  "moved  about  ceaselessly;"  for 
which  offense  God  punished  them  by  imprisoning  them 
in  human  organisms,  a  proceeding  so  much  against  their 
wills,  we  are  told,  that  when  they  learned  their  sentence 
**they  were  seized  with  horror."  Some  sighed  and 
lamented,  as  when  some  wild,  free  animal  is  suddenly 
enchained;  some  hissed  like  serpents,  or  gave  vent  to 
piercing  cries.  "  Must  we  quit,"  they  exclaimed,  "  these 
vast  effulgent  spaces,  this  sacred  sphere,  all  these  splen- 
dors of  the  Empyrean  and  of  the  Happy  Republic  of  the 
gods,  to  be  precipitated  into  those  vile  and  miserable 
abodes?"  Thus  Egyptian  wisdom  made  the  fall  of  man 
to  occur  before  he  was  born,  and  sinning  souls  to  come 
to  their  punishment  at  birth  instead  of  going  to  it  at 
death. 

Many  Christian  writers  give  out  that  the  Egyptians  be- 
lieved in  a  resurrection  of  the  body,  arguing  that  otherwise 
they  would  not  have  built  such  costly  tombs  nor  so  care- 
fully embalmed  corpses  to  be  held  in  them.  For  want 
of  other  reason,  especially  for  the  embalmment,  it  is  in- 
sisted that  it  must  have  been  believed  that  the  mummies 
were  to  arise  and  again  receive  their  souls.  But  there 
is  nothing  in  Egyptian  learning  to  prove  this;  on  the 
contrary,  we  find  there  three  other  distinct  reasons  for 
embalming,  either  of  which  is  good  and  sufficient  to 
exclude  the  need  of  the  supposition  of  any  resurrection, 
if  not  to  show  the  necessity  of  the  practice  itself. 

The  first  reason  was  that  it  was  to  save  the  elements, 
held  to  be  gods,  from  pollution.  The  book  just  quoted 
from  tells  us  that  when  mankind  began  to  die  and  dead 
bodies  to  abound,  the  four  elements  appeared  before 
God  the  Creator,  and  each  in  turn  protested  against 
being  made  the  receptacle  of  corpses.  Earth  objected 
to  burial,  fire  to  cremation,  water  to  having  its  purity 


20  EGYPTIAN  SOULS. 

defiled  by  decaying  matter,  and  air  to  being  tainted  by 
effluvia  from  the  unburied.  In  consequence  of  these 
embarrassing  appeals  Osiris  and  Isis  were  sent  to  earth, 
who  taught  men  the  art  of  mummifying.  (So  says  this 
book,  but  Maspero,  as  we  shall  see,  makes  the  instruc- 
tion come  from  the  god  Anubis,  master  of  sepulture.) 

Here  was  a  most  proper  sanitary  measure  veiled  by 
fable.  The  second  reason  was  that  the  preserved  corpses, 
like  the  Buddhist  and  Christian  relics,  were  supposed  to 
be  effective  in  invoking  the  soul  that  had  left  it.  The 
third,  probably  an  afterthought,  was  that  a  soul  thus 
at  call  must  be  excused  from  attendance  before  the  high 
court  of  the  dead,  and  from  undergoing  punishment  de- 
creed by  it  while  the  mummy  lasted.  A  fourth  and  less 
well-considered  reason  was  that  unless  the  soul  be  held 
to  attendance  on  the  body  it  would  be  liable  to  enter 
into  those  of  beasts  and  half-decayed  astral  "shells." 

Professor  Rawlinson,  in  his  "Religions  of  the  Ancient 
World,"  asserts  that  embalmment  was  for  the  purpose  of 
keeping  the  body  in  good  order  to  receive  back  its  soul 
again  in  a  subsequent  re-incarnation,  of  which  there 
was  to  be  a  long  series  ending  at  last  in  re-absorption 
in  the  supreme  being.  But  he  cannot  be  right.  The 
Egyptians  had  too  much  brains  to  suppose  a  body  with- 
out any  in  its  cranium  could  serve  as  living  receptacle 
of  a  returning  soul,  which  could  always  find  new-born 
babes  to  enter  into  without  needing  to  rob  the  tomb. 
Again,  that  industrious  Egyptologist,  Gerald  Massey, 
declares  that  the  mummy  once  swaddled  and  coffined 
never  walked  again;  and  Herodotus,  who  in  the  days  of 
embalmment  went  to  Egypt,  studied  the  process,  and 
learned  of  the  beliefs  then  and  there  prevailing,  says 
simply  that  the  soul  of  the  departed  returned  to  earth 
and  entered  the  body  of  a  man.  But  there  is  yet  another 
supposition. 

The  contradictions  in  the  accounts  we  have  of  the 
religious  beliefs  of  Egypt  are  no  doubt  mostly  due  to 


EGYPTIAN  SOULS,  21 

the  enormous  length  of  her  history,  though  in  the  light  of 
recent  discoveries  many  accounts  must  be  now  wholly 
discredited.     Then  again,  she  had  a  migratory  capital, 
each  movement  of  which   from  the   delta   of   the  Nile 
upward  towards  its  cataracts  involved  a  change  of  gods 
and  a  modification  of  the  worship  of  them.      In  the  con- 
fusion  thus  arising  the  late   work  of   M.   Maspero  on 
"The  Ancient  History  of  Oriental  Peoples,"  and  which 
gives   the    latest    news   from    the    explorations,    brings 
welcome  light,  and  by  aid  of  it,  in  connection  with  what 
was  before  known,  the  natural  history  of  the  Egyptian  soul 
may  be  clearly  enough  traced  for  present  purposes.     We 
now  at  last  find  the  true  rationale  of  the  mummy  and  its 
pyramid.     The   key   to   their  mystery  and    to    Egypt's 
whole  religious  system  is  seen  to  be  a  dogma,  originat- 
ing in  very  early  and   savage  times,  which,  though  so 
arising,  like  others  of  equally  low  origin,  has  by  virtue 
of  that  strange  principle  prevailing  in  all  religions  which 
makes  a  dogma  seem  true  in  proportion  as  the  time  is 
long,    which  removes  its  grounds   and    sanctions    from 
reach  of  scrutiny,  persisted  through  all  stages  of  subse- 
quent enlightenment,  making  even  that  enlightenment 
subservient  to  it,  while  in  return  rendering  it  of  small 
avail  for  good.     The  dogma  in  question  made  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul  depend  on  the  preservation  of  the  body, 
quite  the  opposite  of  the   Christian  fundamental  belief 
that  the  soul  confers  immortality  on  the  body,  or  at  least 
wiH   do  so  when  the  world    comes   to  an  end.       Long 
before  mummies  were  embalmed  or  pyramids  built,  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Nile  Delta  in  some  way  adopted  this 
notion,  first  proclaimed,  may  be,  by  some  naked  worker 
of  magic  spells,  the  equal  in  wisdom  of   our  red-skinned 
medicine-men,   or   a  black-skinned  mumbo-jumbo  man, 
and  fortuitously  taking  root  in  the  minds  of  a  tribe  of 
other  naked  people  even  more  ignorant  than  he,  after- 
wards, as  centuries  rolled  on,  to  be  consecrated  by  the 


22  EGYPTIAN  SOULS. 

developed  intelligence  of  a  civilized  and  great  nation  as 
infallible  truth. 

As  a  result  the  Egyptians  very  early  selected  for  the 
interment  of  their  dead  rocky  or  sandy,  rather  than  low 
and  moist  soils,  because  in  dry  ground  bodies  would 
keep  longer  and  souls  survive  longer;  which  custom  con- 
tinued even  after  the  god  Anubis,  master  of  sepulture, 
came  and  taught  men  the  art  of  embalming  as  a  better 
method  of  ensuring  eternal  life.  But  before  the  coming 
of  the  undertaker  god,  and  even  after  considerable  prog- 
ress had  been  made  in  civilization,  no  better  home  for 
the  soul  (or  what  stood  for  it)  was  provided  than  the 
grave  in  dry  sands  or  tomb  among  the  rocks,  where  it 
had  to  lie  with  its  body  and  live  with  it  as  best  it  could. 
In  the  more  developed  psychology  of  Egyptian  sages  the 
man  was  composed  of  a  material  body,  a  double  of  it 
in  thin  ghostly  stuff,  and  a  soul  so  far  incorporeal  that  it 
could  only  manifest  itself  by  taking  the  form  of  a  hawk, 
in  which  to  come  and  go  and  visit  its  body  in  its  dire 
abode,  though  without  ever  entering  either  it  or  its 
double,  either  in  life  or  death.  But  in  the  beginning 
this,  the  true  soul,  played  no  part.  The  survivor  at 
death  was  the  mere  double.  This  was  supposed,  as  it 
has  everywhere  been  by  those  who  have  conceived  it, 
including  Swedenborg  and  modern  spiritualists  also,  to 
be  a  duplicate  of  its  late  incasement,  like  it  needing 
food,  drink  and  raiment,  so  that  there  was  danger  not- 
withstanding its  quasi  immortality  and  the  fact  that  its 
man  had  already  died  once,  the  poor  thing  in  its  gloomy 
hole  would  die  of  starvation,  a  fear  confirmed  by  the 
common  belief  that  famishing  ghosts  did  actually  come 
forth  in  the  night  season  to  prowl  and  plunder  and  even, 
as  vampires,  suck  the  blood  of  those  who  slept.  It  was 
to  prevent  this  night  walking  that  the  custom  arose 
(of  awful  consequence  to  the  human  race)  of  burying  with 
the  dead  at  the  first  interment,  and  from  time  to  time 
afterwards  depositing  withm  their  reach  supplies  of  food 


EGYPTIAN  SOULS.  23 

and  drink  and  other  comforts,  which  served  not  only  to 
purchase  exemption  from  such  depredations,  but  secured 
to  the  givers  the  good  will  and  friendly  offices  of  the 
doubles,  whatever  that  might  count  for.  Thus  the 
universal  and  long  consecrated  custom  of  feeding  the 
dead  is  seen  to  have  originated  in  fear,  howbeit,  since 
it  was  their  surviving  relatives  on  whom  the  duty  de- 
volved, it  was  natural  that  love  would  soon  or  late  take 
the  place  of  fear  as  motive  or  at  least  mingle  with  it. 

Concerning  the  kind  of  existence  the  double  was 
supposed  to  lead  so  interred  with  its  body,  whether 
in  grave  or  tomb,  Maspero  says:  "It  there  retained  its 
character  and  its  figure  as  above  ground;  double  before 
the  funeral,  it  remained  double  afterwards,  with  ability 
to  accomplish  in  its  way  all  the  functions  of  animal  life. 
It  moved,  went  and  came,  breathed,  spoke,  received  the 
homage  of  devotees,  but  without  joy  and  like  a  machine, 
more  by  reason  of  an  instinctive  horror  of  annihilation 
than  from  any  real  love  of  life.  Regret  for  the  day- 
light world  it  had  quitted  troubled  incessantly  its  inert 
and  gloomy  existence."  And  he  quotes  from  a  tablet  as 
late  as  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies  a  lament  supposed  to 
be  pttered  by  a  double  in  its  tomb: 

"  O,  my  brother,  cease  not  to  eat  and  drink,  get 
drunk  and  make  love.  Give  yourself  up  to  your  desires 
night  and  day  and  while  you  can  live  grieve  for  nothing. 
....  Here  is  a  land  of  slumber  and  darkness,  a 
place  where  the  inhabitants  sleep  in  their  mummied 
forms  never  more  to  awake,  never  more  to  behold  their 
brothers,  fathers,  mothers,  oblivious  of  their  wives  and 

children O,    give   me  to  drink    of    running 

water Set    my  face  to  the    wind    from    the 

north  and  my  feet  on  the  river's  shore  that  refreshing 
breezes  may  kiss  away  my  grief."  On  the  other  hand, 
the  following  is  the  discourse  a  living  man  is  supposed  to 
have  held  with  his  soul,  copied  from  a  papyrus  now  at 
Berlin:    "I  say  to  myself    every  day:   What  returning 


34  EGYPTIAN  SOULS. 

health  is  to  one  who  has  been  ill  and  rises  from  his  bed 
of  suffering  to  go  out  into  the  open  court,  such  is 
death.  I  say  to  myself  every  day :  Like  breathing  there 
the  perfumed  air,  seated  in  the  pleasant  shade  of  an  ex- 
tended curtain,  such  is  death.  I  say  to  myself  every 
day:  Like  sitting  on  a  flower  bank  in  the  land  of  drunk- 
enness, breathing  sweet  odors,  such  is  death.  I  say  to 
myself  every  day:  Like  an  inundating  flood,  like  a 
warrior  in  combat,  whom  none  can  withstand,  such  is 
death.  I  say  to  myself  every  day:  Like  a  clearing  sky, 
like  a  hunter  who,  following  his  game  too  far,  suddenly 
finds  himself  in  a  country  he  knows  nothing  of,  such  is 
death." 

The  conflict  between  the  two  statements  cannot  be 
reconciled  by  the  one  being  uttered  by  a  double  and  the 
other  by  a  living  man  concerning  his  soul,  for  there  is 
no  reason  for  supposing  there  was  ever  a  belief  that 
the  soul  could  be  happy  and  the  double  miserable,  but 
must,  like  innumerable  other  conflicting  statements 
which  the  stones  and  manuscripts  of  Egypt  make,  be 
attributed  to  their  relating  to  different  times  and  places 
during  the  enormously  long  course  of  Egypt's  history,  in 
which  the  seat  of  government  was  many  times  changed, 
and  with  it  the  presiding  deity,  followed  by  modifications 
in  worship  and  creed  or  to  their  representing  beliefs  ac- 
cepted by  different  grades  of  mind.  There  was  abundant 
room  in  time  and  space  and  in  the  range  of  intelligence 
from  high  to  low  to  admit  any  conceivable  number  of 
diverse  beliefs  concerning  what  must  ever  lie  outside  of 
knowledge.  A  gradual  improvement  continued  to  go  on, 
but  to  the  last  the  soul  proper  was  but  a  mere  visitor  to 
the  tomb  of  its  mummy,  of  which  the  double  was,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  constant  companion — a  thing  of  bodily 
needs,  that  must  be  fed  and  comforted,  if  not  always  by 
real  food  and  drink,  etc.,  then  by  representation  of 
these  in  sculpture  and  painting. 

But  if  dead  men  were  troublesome  to  the  living,  dead 


EG  YP  TIAN  SO ULS.  35 

gods  were  much  more  so,  to  both  the  living  and  the 
dead.  In  contriving  their  anthropomorphic  deities  the 
Egyptian  theologians  were  logical  enough  to  make  them 
mortal.  They  could  die  of  disease,  or  age,  though  not 
so  early  in  life  as  men,  and  could  even  be  murdered  as 
Osiris  was.  And  since  their  doubles  too  derived  immor- 
tality from  their  bodies,  gods  had  to  be  as  carefully 
buried  or  entombed.  At  first  cemeteries  were  estab- 
lished for  them  on  mountain  slopes,  and  one  of  the  most 
ancient  titles  given  the  defunct  deities  was  "  those  who 
are  on  the  sands,"  but  when  embalming  was  discovered 
they  had  the  benefit  of  it.  "Every  Nome,"  says  Mas- 
pero,  "had  the  mummy  and  the  tomb  of  its  dead  god, 
mummy  and  tomb  of  Anhouri  at  Thenis,  mummy  of 
Osiris  at  Mendes,  mummy  of  Tourmou  at  Heliopolis. 
Many  would  not  admit  that  their  names  were  changed 
in  changing  their  mode  of  existence:  Osiris  defunct 
remained  Osiris  still,  Nit  or  Hathor  remained  Nit  or 
Hathor  at  Sais  or  at  Dendera,  but  Phtah  of  Memphis 
became  Sokaris  when  he  died,  etc."  And  in  the  other 
life  their  doubles  fared  no  better  than  men  as  to  hunger, 
thirst  and  gloom,  though  their  ennui  was  somewhat  be- 
guiled by  their  being  allowed  to  exercise  the  functions 
of  rulers  over  them  who  in  life  had  owed  them  fealty, 
the  same  as  before.  Nevertheless,  their  dispositions 
were  sadly  altered  for  the  worse.  Gods  who  while  they 
lived  were  distinguished  for  goodness,  once  they  found 
themselves  in  the  tomb,  became  tyrannical,  rapacious  and 
ferocious.  A  mortal  summoned  before  Osiris  even,  in 
his  youth  so  loving  and  kind,  came,  as  is  related,  "in 
fear  and  trembling,  and  none  among  gods  or  men  dare 
look  him  (Osiris)  in  the  face,  and  the  great  and  small  are 
alike  to  him.  He  spares  none  because  they  love  him. 
He  carries  off  the  infant  from  its  mother  and  the  old  man 
who  crosses  his  path;  all  beings,  filled  with  fear,  implore 
before  him,  but  he  turns  not  his  face  towards  them." 
"Neither  the  living  nor  the  dead  could  escape  his  fury 


26  EGYPTIAN  SOULS. 

except  on  condition  of  constantly  paying  tribute  to  and 
feeding  him  like  a  simple  human  double."  Gifts 
intended  for  the  double  of  one  who  owed  fealty  to  a 
dead  god  must  pass  through  his  hands  and  he  was  sure 
to  deduct  for  his  own  use  a  round  commission  before  he 
delivered  them. 

M.  Maspero  could  not  be  expected  to  tell  his  readers 
about  any  esoteric  religion  held  in  secret  by  the  priests, 
or  imparted  to  those  only  who  were  intelligent  enough 
to  reject  the  exoteric  beliefs  just  reviewed  and  receive 
more  rational  ones,  since  such  secrets  were  not  pro- 
claimed on  the  walls  of  tombs  nor  put  in  writing  and 
deposited  in  coffins. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

CHALDEAN    SOULS. 

Chaldean  gods,  like  Egyptian,  were  men  and  not 
"abstract  personalities,  who  presided  metaphysically- 
over  the  forces  of  Nature."  They  had,  too,  all  the 
faults  and  vices  of  men,  though  with  few  enough  of  their 
virtues.  And  yet  they  all  seem  to  have  begun  life  as 
suns.  "Each  was  at  first  a  complete  sun,  and  reunited 
in  himself  all  the  virtues  and  faults  innate  in  the  sun," 
from  the  fructifying  warmth  which  gives  life  to  the 
raging  heat  which  destroys  it.  All  Chaldeans  worshipped 
all  the  gods  of  every  part  of  Chaldea,  only  some  put  one 
god  above  the  rest  and  others  another.  But  there  was 
no  divinity  of  established  supremacy  everywhere  any 
more  than  in  Egypt.  Says  Maspero:  "The  supreme 
god  whom  the  earlier  Assyriologists  believed  they  had 
found,  II,  Ilou,  Ra,  no  more  existed  than  the  sovereign 
god  the  Egyptologists  imagined  to  crown  the  Egyptian 
Pantheon."  Nor  was  there  even  any  god  of  gods;  one 
would  be  suzerain  in  one  district  and  vassal  in  another. 
They  had  their  trinity  also,  consisting  of  Anou,  the  sky; 
Bel,  the  earth,  and  Ea,  the  water;  but  they  were  not 
three  in  one,  and  there  were  two  triads,  one  superior 
and  one  inferior.  And  these  six  were  again  doubled, 
for  each  had  a  wife,  though  in  the  council  of  twelve 
thus  composed  the  women  seem  to  have  had  little  or  no 
voice.  There  were  special  or  guardian  gods.  "Each 
man  was  placed  from  his  birth  under  the  protection  of  a 
god  and  a  goddess,  of  whom  he  was  the  servant,  or, 
rather,  the  son,"  whose  duty  was  principally  to  protect 


28  CHALDEAN  SOULS. 

him  from  evil  spirits.     The  Chaldeans  also  worshipped 
their  dead  kings. 

These  gods  were  opposed  by  powerful  devils,  not  kept 
in  Hades  as  in  Egypt,  but  roaming  at  large  like  the 
Christian  Devil,  "up  and  down  the  earth,"  and  like  him 
and  his  followers  were  fallen  angels  with  a  like  history, 
for  they  rebelled,  scaled  the  walls  of  heaven,  and  were 
with  difficulty  flung  over  the  parapets. 

The  fate  of  the  Chaldean  dead  is  given  by  M.  Maspero 
on  page  689  of  his  book,  thus:  "The  dead  man — or 
rather  that  which  survived  him,  his  ekimmon — inhabits 
the  tomb,  and  it  is  to  render  his  sojourn  there  endura- 
ble that  they  deposit  in  it  at  the  time  of  interment  or 
cremation  (where  there  was  cremation  the  ashes  or 
charred  remains  were  interred),  the  food,  clothes,  orna- 
ments and  arms  of  which  he  is  supposed  to  be  in  need. 
Thus  provided  for  by  his  children  and  heirs,  he  retains 
for  them  the  same  affection  that  he  had  when  on  the 
earth,  and  manifests  it  by  all  the  means  in  his  power; 
he  watches  over  them,  and  dispels  from  them  all  evil 
influences.  If  they  neglect  and  forget  him,  he  revenges 
himself  by  returning  to  torment  them  in  their  homes. 
He  lets  loose  disease  upon  and  overwhelms  them  with 
his  malediction;  he  is  no  better  then  than  the  Egyptian 
double,  and  if  perchance  they  deprive  him  of  sepulture, 
he  becomes  a  peril  not  only  for  them,  but  for  the  whole 
city.  The  dead,  incapable  of  gaining  an  honest  living 
for  themselves,  are  unpitying  toward  one  another;  those 
who  arrive  among  them  without  prayers,  without  liba- 
tions, without  offerings,  they  do  not  welcome  nor  give 
alms  to.  The  spirit  of  an  unburied  body,  having  neither 
home  nor  means  of  existence,  wanders  about  the  towns 
and  fields,  subsisting  by  rapine  and  crime.  It  is  these 
who,  gliding  into  houses  at  night,  show  themselves  to 
the   inmates  under  horrible    aspects,   filling  them   with 

terror This  human  survival,  represented  as  so 

powerful  for  good  or  evil,  was  for  all  that  only  a  fluid 


CHALDEAN  SOULS.  29 

sort  of  being,  without  substance,  a  double  analogous  to 
the  doubles  of  the  Egyptians.  With  ability  to  go  and 
come  at  will,  to  move  itself  freely  through  space,  it  could 
not  be  permanently  held  in  the  little  house  of  brick 
where  its  body  rotted;  it  was  carried,  or  carried  itself  to 
the  tenebrous  far-off  country  of  Arlou,  situated,  some 
said  underground,  others  said  at  the  eastern  or  southern 
limits  of  the  universe."  It  was  in  this  world  the  dead 
were  judged  and  punished,  by  Allat,  ''the  lady  of  the 
great  country  where  all  go  after  death  who  have  breathed 
here  below."  But  offenses  committed  against  the  gods, 
rather  than  those  against  men,  occupied  the  attention  of 
the  court.  Souls  found  guilty  were  condemned  to  suffer, 
during  a  life  made  eternal  in  order  to  enhance  their 
misery,  all  manner  of  diseases.  Those  who  were  acquit- 
ted, however,  fared  little  better.  They  were  described 
as  crying  with  hunger  and  thirst,  with  nothing  to  eat 
but  dust  and  clay,  shivering  with  cold.  And  if,  finding 
this  kind  of  life  worse  even  than  what  they  led  in  the 
grave,  they  should  seek  to  return  there,  the  gates  were 
found  closed  upon  them  forever,  save  when  quite  excep- 
tionally they  were  opened  upon  an  order  from  the  higher 
gods.  "  They  retained  no  memory  of  what  they  did  on 
earth.  Domestic  affections,  memories  of  services  ren- 
dered, all  was  effaced  from  their  misty  brains.  Nothing 
floated  from  the  wreck  but  an  immense  regret  for  having 
been  exiled  from  this  world  and  the  poignant  desire  to 
reascend  to  it."  But  return  to  earth  meant  resuscita- 
tion, and  earth  spirits  were  on  the  watch  to  prevent 
that.  Re-incarnation  seems  not  to  have  been  conceived 
of,  so  far  as  the  tiles  reveal. 

The  Chaldean,  living  and  dying  without  hope  for  the 
future,  looked  for  happiness  only  during  his  short  exist- 
ence on  earth.  Of  what  was  to  come  after  it  he  seemed 
to  have  very  dim  notions,  and  he  really  seemed  to  care 
for  or  fear  his  future  very  little.  There  was  among  the 
more  intelligent,  it  is  supposed,  an  esoteric  belief  in  a 


80  CHALDEAN  SOULS. 

tolerably  pleasant  spiritual  paradise  for  those  who  had 
lived  good  lives.  But  the  tiles,  no  more  than  the  papyrii, 
could  be  expected  to  tell  very  much  of  any  thing  beyond 
the  exoteric  and  vulgar  creed  of  the  people  at  large. 
M.  Maspero  recapitulates  what  these  reveal  as  follows: 
"  The  gods  permitted  no  living  man  to  penetrate  with 
impunity  their  empire:  whoever  would  mount  there,  no 
matter  how  brave,  must  make  his  way  through  the  gates 
of  death.  The  common  man  did  not  pretend  to  do  that. 
His  religion  gave  him  the  choice  between  a  perpetual 
sojourn  in  a  tomb  and  a  seclusion  in  the  prisons  of  Allat; 
if  he  sought  at  any  time  to  escape  from  this  alternative 
and  figure  to  himself  a  different  fate  than  either,  his  ideas 
of  the  other  world  remain  vague  and  did  not  at  all  equal 
the  minute  precision  of  the  Egyptians.  The  cares  of 
present  life  absorbed  him  too  completely  to  allow  him 
time  to  speculate  on  the  conditions  of  future  one." 
Writing  at  an  earlier  date  than  Maspero,  Rawlinson 
affirms  that  the  Chaldeans  had  no  esoteric  religion  and 
cared  little  for  the  future — that  after  the  soul,  embodied 
in  a  double  for  the  purpose,  had  been  feasted  in  paradise 
with  the  good,  or  starved  in  hell  with  the  bad,  it,  as  pure 
soul,  was  sent  up  to  the  sun  as  its  final  home.  In  this 
he  cannot  be  said  to  disagree  with  Maspero. 

From  their  Chaldean  kindred  the  Jews  very  naturally 
took  many  of  their  religious  beliefs,  both  orthodox  and 
heterodox.  And  in  some  way  Christianity  has  enriched 
itself  with  the  following  fundamental  doctrines,  which 
are  also  found  in  the  Chaldean  store,  namely:  uninten- 
tional sin;  the  fall  of  man;  the  rebellion  of  the  angels 
and  their  fall;  the  disastrous  effect  on  the  soul's  welfare 
of  its  body  not  being  interred  according  to  Church  usage ; 
an  unconquerable  devil;  an  anthropomorphic  god;  the 
grave  as  a  proper  resting  place  for  both  soul  and  body; 
the  greater  importance  of  sins  committed  against  God  as 
compared    with    those    committed  against  man,  arising 


CHALDEAN  SOULS.  31 

perhaps    from  the  fact  that  God  is  the  judge   between 
himself  and  man. 

It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  Jewish  religion  had 
nothing  to  say  of  an  immortal  soul.  And  it  would  be 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  those  intelligent  and  self- 
regarding  Semites  who  descended  from  Chaldean  Abra- 
ham discarded  the  poorly  formulated  doctrine  of  immor- 
tality conceived  by  his  Chaldean  fathers,  because,  as  so 
formulated,  it  was  alike  repugnant  to  reason,  taste  and 
humanity,  at  once  incredible  and  painful.  But  then,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  was  so  very  indefinite  that  it  might 
very  well  have  come  in  with  Abraham,  and  then  faded 
away  of  itself  into  what  is  now  supposed  to  be  nothing- 
ness, and  that  what  little  notion  of  it  is  sometimes  re- 
vealed in  the  Old  Testament  is  but  rudimentary  remains 
of  a  virtually  extinct  belief.  However  this  may  be,  it 
is  certain  that  neither  Judaism  nor  Christianity  hasany 
reason  to  be  proud  of  its  Chaldean  inheritance. 


CHAPTER  V. 

GREEK    AND    ROMAN    SOULS. 

The  Greeks  and  Romans,  though  they  differed  in  many 
respects  in  their  religious  beliefs,  agreed  in  uniting  the 
soul  and  what  they  called  its  image,  idol,  or  shade  during 
a  certain  sojourn  in  paradise,  preceded,  in  the  case  of 
the  wicked,  by  more  or  less  of  preparation  in  purgatory ; 
but  after  that  inflicted  a  kind  of  second  death,  which 
severed  them  forever,  the  soul  going  to  live  in  a  star,  or 
as  a  star,  and  the  shade  to  while  away  its  existence,  such 
as  it  was,  in  a  place  of  shades,  which  was  by  some  thought 
to  be  in  the  skies  above  the  moon  and  by  others  in  the 
bowels  of  the  earth.  It  seems  to  have  been  thought  that 
the  mere  soul  was  incapable  of  enjoyment  or  suffering,  of 
such  at  least  as  pertained  to  those  half  material  places 
known  as  paradise  and  purgatory,  unless  in  some  way  em- 
bodied; but,  after  having  served  these  temporary  pur- 
poses the  shades,  who,  perhaps,  because  of  the  common 
belief  in  their  indestructible  nature,  naturally  arising 
from  the  fact  that  they  were  in  imagination  modeled  on 
apparitions  of  ghosts  of  dead  people  as  well  as  of  living 
ones,  and  so  could  not  die,  were  allowed  to  be  as  immor- 
tal as  their  nature  permitted.  But  these,  unlike  what 
they  were  when  figuring  in  paradise  or  purgatory,  being 
without  soul  or  mind,  were  of  course  not  men,  nor  fit  to 
people  a  world  of  any  kind,  quite  inferior  to  the  hardy 
hunting  ghosts  of  the  savage  elysium,  or  the  hard-drink- 
ing ones  of  the  Scandinavian  Valhalla,  or  the  even  more 
realistic  spirit  men  of  Swedenborg  and  modern  Spirit- 
ualism. 

The  Greek  system  of  belief  in  the  time  of  Plato  is  of 


GREEK  AND  ROMAIV  SOULS.  33 

course  best  stated  by  Plato  himself,  in  reading  whose 
words  now  to  be  quoted  it  must  be  remembered  that  then 
the  Universe,  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  souls  of  men 
were  all  believed  to  be  gods. 

"  Wherefore  he  also  made  the  world  (the  God)  in  the 
form  of  a  globe,  round  as  from  a  lathe,  in  every  direc- 
tion equally  distant  from  the  centre  to  the  extremes,  the 
most  perfect  and  the  most  like  itself  of  all  figures;  for 
he  considered  that  the  like  is  infinitely  fairer  than  the 
unlike.  This  he  finished  all  round,  and  made  the  outside 
quite  smooth  for  many  reasons;  in  the  first  place,  be- 
cause eyes  would  have  been  of  no  use  to  him  when  there 
was  nothing  remaining  without  him,  or  which  could  be 
seen;  and  there  would  have  been  no  use  in  ears  when 
there  was  nothing  to  be  heard;  nor  would  there  have 
been  any  use  of  implements  by  the  help  of  which  he  might 
receive  his  food  or  get  rid  of  what  he  had  already  digested ; 
for  there  was  nothing  which  went  from  him  or  came  to 
him,  seeing  there  was  nothing  beside  him.  And  he  him- 
self provided  his  nutriment  to  himself  through  his  own 
decay,  and  all  that  he  did  or  suffered  was  done  in  him- 
self and  by  himself,  according  to  art.  For  the  creator 
conceived  that  a  being  which  was  self-sufficient  would 
be  far  more  excellent  than  one  that  lacked  anything; 
and,  as  he  had  no  need  to  take  anything  or  defend  him- 
self against  any  one,  he  had  no  need  of  hands,  and  the 
creator  did  not  think  necessary  to  furnish  him  with  them 
when  he  did  not  want  them;  nor  had  he  any  feet,  nor  of 
the  whole  apparatus  of  walking;  but  he  assigned  to  him 
the  motion  appropriate  to  the  spherical  form,  being  that 
of  all  the  seven  which  is  the  most  appropriate  to  mind 
and  intelligence,  and  so  made  him  move  in  the  same 
manner  and  on  the  same  spot,  going  round  in  a  circle 
turning  within  himself.  All  the  other  six  motions  he 
took  away  from  him,  and  made  him  incapable  of  being 
affected  by  them.     And  as  this  circular  movement  re- 


34  GREEK  AND  ROMAN   SOULS. 

quired  no  feet,  he  made  the  universe  without  feet  or 
legs." 

*'Such  was  the  whole  scheme  of  the  eternal  God  about 
the  god  that  was  to  be,  to  whom  he  for  all  these  reasons 
gave  a  body,  smooth,  even,  and  in  every  direction  equi- 
distant from  centre,  entirely  perfect,  and  formed  out  of 
perfect  bodies.  And  in  the  centre  he  put  the  soul  which 
he  diffused  through  the  whole,  and  also  spread  over  all 
the  body  around  about.  And  he  also  made  one  solitary 
and  only  heaven  a  circle  to  hold  converse  with  itself,  and 
needing  no  other  friendship  or  acquaintances.  Having 
these  purposes  in  view  he  created  the  world  to  be  a 
blessed  god." 

The  reasons  here  given  for  enclosing  gods  in  a  per- 
fect sphere  apply  just  as  well  to  the  soul  of  a  man  after 
death  and  final  riddance  from  both  body  and  shade  and 
well  show  the  needlessness  and  absurdity  of  lodging 
such  a  soul  in  a  body  of  human  form,  with,  of  course, 
all  the  needs  pertaining  to  it. 

In  the  Timseus,  from  which  the  above  is  taken,  Plato 
goes  on  to  say: 

"And  when  he  had  framed  the  Universe  he  distributed 
souls  equal  in  number  to  the  stars,  and  assigned  each 
soul  to  a  star;  and  having  placed  them  as  in  a  chariot 
he  showed  them  the  nature  of  the  Universe."  This  re- 
lates to  the  souls  before  earthly  birth ;  after  death  it  was 
the  same.  He  said  that  "he  who  had  lived  well  during 
his  appointed  time  would  return  to  the  habitation  of  his 
star,  and  there  have  a  blessed  and  suitable  existence." 
And  a  like  happy  fate  awaited  those  who  had  lived  ill, 
after  a  course  of  transmigrations  through  bodies  of  all 
kinds  had  purged  them  and  made  them  as  good  as  the 
best.  And  this  seems  to  have  also  been  the  disposition 
of  Greek  souls  between  re-incarnations.  They  were  sent 
home  to  the  starry  globes  they  came  from.  But  incor- 
rigible souls  were  mercifully  annihilated. 

Concerning  re-incarnation  Plato  tells  us  in  the  Timaeus 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN  SOULS.  35 

that  belief  in  it  was  universal,  and  in  the  Phocdrus,  goes 
into  details,  concerning  the  manner  of  re-birth  of  cer- 
tain souls  in  this  wise.  "There  is  a  law  of  the  goddess 
Retribution  ....  the  law  ordains  that  this  soul 
shall  in  the  first  generation  pass,  not  into  that  of  any 
other  animal,  but  only  of  man;  and  the  soul  which  has 
seen  most  of  truth  shall  come  to  the  birth  as  a  philoso- 
pher or  artist,  or  musician  or  lover;  that  which  has  seen 
truth  in  the  second  degree  shall  be  a  righteous  king  or 
warrior  or  lord;  the  soul  which  is  of  the  third  class  shall 
be  a  politician  or  trader  or  economist;  the  fourth  shall 
be  a  lover  of  gymnastic  toils  or  a  physician;  the  fifth  a 
prophet  or  hierophant;  to  the  sixth  a  poet  or  imitator 
will  be  appropriate;  to  the  seventh  the  life  of  an  artisan 
or  husbandman;  to  the  eighth  that  of  a  sophist  or  dema- 
gogue; to  the  ninth  that  of  a  tyrant;  all  of  these  are 
states  of  probation,  in  which  he  who  lives  righteously 
improves,  and  he  who  lives  unrighteously  deteriorates 
his  lot." 

Let  us  now  turn  from  old  to  new  Platonism,  six  hun- 
dred years  intervening  between  the  two. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

NEOPLATONISM    ON    THE    SOUL. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  second  century  there  arose  a 
school  of  philosophy  known  as  Neoplatonism,  which  so 
commended  itself  to  the  instructed  classes  that  it  spread 
rapidly  throughout  the  more  enlightened  parts  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  and  during  two  centuries  threatened  to 
supersede  Christianity.  Its  founders  were  as  brilliant 
men  as  ever  devoted  themselves  to  such  work.  Its  aim 
was  to  unify  and  at  the  same  time  spiritualize,  purify  and 
enlighten  all  religions  without  attempting  to  do  away 
with  any.  It  included  a  complete  and  perfected  phi- 
losophy, psychology,  theosophy  and  magic,  as  complete 
and  perfect  as  great  minds  by  long  and  laborious  thinking 
and  discussion  could  construct  out  of  all  that  went  before 
it,  aided  by  as  good  inspiration  and  revelation  as  ever 
had  come  to  any  body  of  mystics,  whether  of  Europe  or 
•Asia.  But  it  was  too  fine  and  good  for  the  times,  and  its 
fate  goes  far  to  prove  that  the  wisdom  of  the  learned 
should  not  be  profaned  by  imparting  it  to  the  vulgar, 
and  also  that  while  sages  and  prophets  may  beat  the  bush 
it  is  always  the  priests  who  catch  the  bird.  A  school  of 
philosophy  could  be  no  match  for  an  organized  Church, 
yearly  growing  more  compact,  efficient  and  unscrupulous, 
ever  ready  to  invoke  in  aid  of  its  polemics  the  fury  of  the 
populace  or  the  strong  arm  of  the  government.  And 
Neoplatonism  did  in  fact  go  down  before  brute  force. 
The  murder  of  beautiful  Hypatia  by  Bishop  Cecil's  mob 
was  truly  a  death  blow  to  the  central  school  at  Alexan- 
dria, and  later  the  one  at  Athens  was  easily  suppressed 
by  a  simple  edict  of  the  Emperor  Justinian.     By  this 


NEOPLATONISM   ON   THE    SOUL.  37 

conquest  Christianity  not  only  got  rid  of  a  dangerous 
enemy  but  also  acquired  that  enemy's  property,  which 
she  did  not  hesitate  promptly  to  apply  to  her  own  use 
and  adornment.  And  to-day  the  beautiful  morality  and 
spirituality  and  subtle  metaphysics  of  conquered  Neo- 
platonism  are  exhibited  and  vaunted  as  the  peculiar  en- 
dowment of  the  corporation  chartered  by  Constantine 
and  organized  by  Augustine,  vouchsafed  to  it  by  God  in 
reward  for  its  meritorious  works.  Of  course  the  acquisi- j 
tion  lost  much  of  its  value  by  being  combined  with  suchi 
dogmas  as  the  creation  of  the  world  in  time,  the  incarna- 
tion, and  cadaverous  resurrection,  with  their  natural 
consequences,  a  combination  that  has  proved  as  confus- 
ing to  believers  as  troublesome  to  their  teachers,  who 
nevertheless  must  find  it  exceedingly  handy  to  exhibit 
some  of  the  choice  gems  of  Neoplatonism,  to  intelligent 
and  refined  enquirers,  as  samples  of  the  truth  for  the 
dealing  in  which  the  Church  is  sole  and  exclusive  agent, 
and  then  when  the  enquirer  becomes  a  convert  deliver  an 
inferior  article  of  its  own  make.  Thus  Neoplatonisra^ 
furnished  Christianity,  when  sorely  needing  it,  a  brand"' 
new  stock  of  ideas,  which  served  it  for  intellectual  pabu- 
lum on  which  to  subsist  in  its  thousand  years  of  hiber- 
nation in  the  cave  of  the  Dark  Ages,  and  also  when  the 
spirit  of  criticism  and  doubt  began  to  stir  men's  long 
benumbed  minds,  helped  them  take  their  first  free  steps 
in  science  and  learning. 

Doctrines  of  Neoplatonism. 

Ammonius  Saccas,  the  founder  of  the  school,  left  no 
writings,  and  our  information  concerning  its  teachings  is 
derived  from  those  of  his  disciples,  chiefly  of  Plotinus, 
who  lived  in  the  third  century  A.  D.,  which  were  col- 
lected by  his  disciple  Porphery  and  arranged  in  six  parts 
named  the  Enneads,  of  nine  books  each. 


88  NEOPLATONISM  ON  THE  SOUL. 

Revelation. 

The  Neoplatonists  were  nothing  if  not  mystics.  Each 
for  himself  sought  to  know  absolute  truth  by  inspiration 
coming  to  him  from  the  highest  cosmic  principle,  while 
he  was  in  a  certain  state  of  ecstasy  by  some  supposed  to 
be  actual  absorption  in  that  principle,  attainable  by  prac- 
tices like  those  usual  to  saints  and  prophets.  ''This 
mystical  absorption  into  the  Deity,  or  the  One,"  says 
Schwegler,  in  his  History  of  Philosophy,  "is  that  which 
gives  Neoplatonism  a  character  so  peculiarly  distinct  from 
the  genuine  Grecian  systems  of  philosophy." 

And  because  of  that  important  addition  to  those  Grecian 
systems,  as  well  as  of  other  changes  it  introduced,  a  de- 
scription of  Neoplatonism  properly  comes  in  here  as  in 
orderly  sequence  following  what  has  been  said  of  Greek 
beliefs  when  Plato  wrote.  What  those  beliefs  did  not 
include  three  centuries  before  Christ  they  attained  to  by 
force  of  intellectual  evolution,  aided  by  the  spread  of 
Hindu  mysticism  and  philosophy,  three  centuries  after 
Christ,  were  formulated  in  the  teachings  of  the  Alex- 
andrian school,  and  present  us  with  the  fruits  of  human 
thought  in  the  peoples  ruled  over  by  Rome  at  their  best 
and  ripest  stage  of  mental  development. 

The  Soul. 

The  quotations  from  the  Enneads  of  Plotinus,  which 
here  follow,  fully  exhibit  the  doctrines  of  the  Neoplato- 
nists concerning  the  nature  and  destiny  of  the  soul.  The 
excuse  for  making  them  so  full  as  they  are  is  that  except 
the  volume  of  selections  by  Thomas  Taylor  no  English 
translation  of  that  voluminous  work  exists, 

"  And  we,  what  are  we?  Are  we  the  universal  Soul,  or 
that  which  approaches  to  it  and  which  is  engendered  in 
time  (that  is  to  say,  the  body)?  No  (we  are  not  bodies). 
Before  the  generation  (of  bodies)  took  place  we  already  ex- 
isted on  high ;  we  were,  some  of  us,  men,  others  even  gods, 
that  is  to  say  we  were  pure  souls,  intelligences  suspended 


NEOPLA  TONISM  ON  THE  SO  UL.  39 

in  the  universal  essence;  we  formed  parts  of  the  intelli- 
gible world,  parts  which  were  not  circumscribed  nor  sep- 
arated, but  which  appertained  wholly  to  the  intelligible 
world.  Even  now,  in  fact,  we  are  not  separated  from  the 
intelligible  world;  but  to  the  intelligible  man  there  is 
joined  in  us  a  man  who  has  wished  to  be  other  than  him- 
self (that  is  to  say,  the  man  of  the  senses  who  has  wished 
to  be  independent),  and  finding  us  (for  we  are  not  outside 
of  the  universe)  he  has  surrounded  us  and  has  added 
himself  to  the  intelligble  man  which  each  of  us  was." 

(iii,  IZl-) 

"  There  are  two  faults  possible  to  the  soul.  The  first 
consists  in  the  motive  which  determines  her  to  descend 
here  below;  the  second  in  the  evil  she  commits  when  she 
gets  here.  The  first  fault  is  expiated  by  the  very  state 
she  finds  herself  in  here.  The  punishment  of  the  second, 
when  it  is  light,  is  to  pass  through  other  bodies  more  or 
less  promptly,  after  judgment  is  pronounced  against  her 
(we  sa.y  judgment  to  show  that  it  is  the  consequence  of  the 
divine  law)."     (ii,  433.) 

*' Souls  are  necessarily  the  principle  of  life  for  all  ani- 
mals. It  is  the  same  with  souls  which  are  in  plants.  In 
fact,  all  souls  issue  from  one  principle  (the  universal  Soul), 
all  have  their  appropriate  life,  are  essences,  indivisible 
and  incorporeal."     (ii,  474.) 

Relation  of  Individual  Souls  to  the  Universal  Soul. 

"  It  must  not  be  thought  that  the  plurality  of  souls 
comes  from  the  plurality  of  bodies.  Individual  souls 
subsist,  as  the  universal  soul  does,  independently  of 
bodies,  and  without  the  unity  of  the  universal  soul  ab- 
sorbing the  multiplicity  of  the  individual  ones,  nor  the 
multiplicity  of  these  dividing  up  the  unity  of  that.  Indi- 
vidual souls  are  distinct  without  being  separated  from 
each  other  and  without  dividing  the  universal  soul  in 
a  number  of  parts;  they  are  united  to  one  another 
without   confounding   themselves   and    without   making 


40  NEOPLATONISM  ON  THE  SOUL. 

of  the  universal  soul  a  simple  totality  of  them  all  : 
for  they  are  not  separated  among  themselves  by  limits, 
and  they  do  not  confound  themselves  with  one  another. 
They  are  distinct  from  each  other  as  different  sciences 
in  one  mind.  In  fine,  the  individual  souls  are  not 
in  the  universal  soul  as  bodies,  that  is  to  say,  as  sub- 
stances really  different  ;  they  are  divers  acts  of  the 
universal  soul"  .  .  .  "all  the  souls  from  the  universal 
soul  and  at  the  same  time  the  universal  soul  exists  inde- 
pendently of  all  the  individual  souls."  (LXXX. ;  of  in- 
troduction to  Vol.  I  of  the  Enneads,  which  introduction 
is  made  up  of  arranged  fragments  of  the  writings  of  dis- 
ciples of  Plotinus,  chiefly  those  of  Porphyry.) 

Descent  of  Soul  into  Body  j  Reasons  for  it. 

"  Thus,  though  the  soul  has  a  divine  essence  and  has 
her  origin  in  the  intelligible  world,  she  enters  a  body. 
Being  an  inferior  god,  she  descends  here  below  by  a  vol- 
untary inclination,  to  the  end  of  developing  her  power 
and  to  embellish  that  which  is  below  her.  If  she  flies 
promptly  from  here  below  she  will  not  have  to  regret 
having  taken  cognizance  of  evil  and  known  what  is  the 
nature  of  vice  (without  having  given  herself  to  it),  nor 
having  occasion  to  manifest  her  faculties  and  let  her  acts 
and  works  be  seen.  In  fact,  the  faculties  of  the  soul 
would  be  useless  if  she  slumbered  forever  in  the  incor- 
poreal essence  without  passing  into  act.  The  soul  would 
not  herself  know  what  she  possessed  if  her  faculties  were 
,not,  by  procession.,  manifested,  for  it  is  action  which 
V  everywhere  manifests  power.  Without  that,  the  soul  in 
question  would  be  completely  hidden  and  obscure,  or, 
rather,  she  would  not  truly  exist,  and  not  possess  reality. 
It  is  the  variety  of  sensible  effects  which  makes  us  admire 
the  grandeur  of  the  intelligible  principle,  whose  nature 
thus  makes  itself  known  by  the  beauty  of  its  works." 

"  Nevertheless,  they  (souls  descended  into  bodies)  are 
not  separated  from  their  principle,  from   their   intelli- 


NEOPLATONISM  ON  THE  SOUL.  41 

gence;  for  their  principle  does  not  descend  with  them, 
so  that  if  their  feet  touch  the  earth,  their  head  lifts  itself 
above  the  sky.  They  descended  more  or  less  low  accord- 
ing as  the  bodies  over  which  they  watch  have  need  of 
their  cares.  But  Jupiter,  their  father,  taking  pity  on 
their  troubles,  has  made  their  ties  mortal;  he  allows 
them  certain  intervals  of  repose,  by  relieving  them  of 
their  bodies,  to  the  end  that  they  may  return  to  inhabit 
the  region  where  the  universal  soul  always  remains,  with- 
out inclining  towards  things  here  below." 

A  Natural  Law  Selects  the  Bodies. 

In  descending  to  earth  each  soul  "  enters  in  the  body  that 
is  prepared  to  receive  it.,  and  which  is  such  as  it  is  according  to 
the  nature  to  which  the  soul  has  becotne  assimilated  by  its  dis- 
position J  for,  according  as  the  soul  has  become  like  the 
natui-e  of  a  man  or  that  of  a  brute,  does  it  enter  a  given 
body.  What  we  call  inevitable  necessity  and  Divine  Jus- 
tice consists  in  the  empire  of  Nature  which  makes  each 
soul  to  pass  in  order  into  the  corporeal  image  which  has 
become  the  object  of  its  affection  and  its  ruling  disposi- 
tion. Also  the  soul  becomes  in  her  entire  form  the 
object  towards  which  she  is  carried  by  her  interior  dis- 
positions ;  it  is  thus  that  she  is  conducted  and  introduced 
where  she  should  go;  not  that  she  is  forced  to  descend 
at  such  and  such  a  moment  into  such  and  such  a  body, 
but  at  a  fixed  instant,  she  descends  as  of  herself,  and 
enters  where  she  should.  Each  soul  has  her  hour  and 
when  that  hour  arrives  descends  as  if  a  herald  called, 
and  penetrates  the  body  prepared  to  receive  her,  as  if 
she  were  controlled  and  put  in  motion  by  the  forces  and 
potent  attractions  of  which  magic  makes  use.  It  is  in 
the  same  manner  that  in  an  animal,  nature  administers 
all  the  organs,  moves  or  engenders  every  thing  in  its 
time,  makes  the  beard  to  grow,  or  the  horns,  and  gives 
to  the  being  particular  inclinations  and  powers,  when 
they  become  necessary;  it  is  in  the  same  manner  in  fine 


43  NEOPLATONISM  ON  THE  SOUL. 

that,  in  the  plants,  she  produces  the  flowers  or  the  fruits 
at  the  suitable  moment.  The  descent  of  souls  into 
bodies  is  neither  voluntary  nor  forced;  it  is  not  volun- 
tary because  it  is  not  chosen  nor  consented  to  by  the 
souls;  it  is  not  forced,  since  they  obey  merely  a  natural 
impulse,  just  as  one  is  led  to  get  married,  or  to  the 
accomplishment  of  certain  honest  acts,  more  by  instinct 
than  by  reason.  At  the  same  time  there  is  something  of 
fatality  for  each  soul;  this  one  accomplishes  its  destiny 
at  this  moment,  and  that  one  at  that  other  moment. 
Even  the  intelligence  that  is  superior  to  the  world  has 
also  something  of  fatality  in  its  existence,  since  it  has 
its  own  destiny,  which  is  to  remain  in  the  intelligible 
world  and  from  thence  radiate  light.  It  is  thus  that  in- 
dividuals come  below  in  virtue  of  the  law  common  to  all 
and  to  which  all  must  submit.  Each  one  in  effect  car- 
ries within  himself  that  common  law,  a  law  which  derives 
none  of  its  force  from  without,  but  finds  it  in  the  nature 
of  those  whom  it  governs,  because  it  is  intimate  in  them. 
Also,  all  accomplish,  of  themselves,  its  commands  at  the 
appointed  time,  because  that  law  impels  them  to  do  so, 
because  deriving  its  force  from  within  the  very  ones  it 
commands,  it  presses  them,  stimulates  and  inspires  them 
with  the  desire  to  go  where  they  are  called  by  their  own 
interior  vocation." 

Process  of  Embodiment. 

"In  descending  from  the  intelligible  world,  souls 
come  first  into  our  sky,  there  they  take  bodies  by  means 
of  which  they  can  pass  into  terrestrial  bodies,  according 
as  they  advance  more  or  less  far  (from  the  intelligible 
world).  There  are  some  who  come  from  the  skies  into 
bodies  of  inferior  nature;  there  are  some  who  pass  from 
one  body  to  another.  These  last  have  not  strength  to 
remount  to  the  intelligible  world  because  they  have  for- 
got. Now  souls  differ,  either  by  the  bodies  to  which 
they  are  united,  or  by  their  diverse  destinies,  or  by  their 


NEOPLATONISM  ON  THE  SOUL.  43 

kind  of  life,  or  finally  by  their  primitive  nature."     (4th 
Ennead,  3  book.) 

Soul  and  Body — The  Composite  Man. 

"It  must  be  then  that  man  has  for  reason*  (for  es- 
sence) something  other  than  the  soul.  What  prevents 
then  that  man  is  something  composite?  That  is  to  say, 
a  soul  subsisting  in  a  certain  reason,  admitting  that 
reason  to  be  a  certain  act  of  the  soul,  but  that  such  act 
cannot  exist  without  the  principle  which  produces  it. 
Now,  such  is  the  nature  of  the  seminal  reasons,  f  They 
are  not  without  soul,  for  generative  reasons  are  not  in- 
animate; and  at  the  same  time  are  not  soul,  pure  and 
simple.  There  is  nothing  astonishing  that  such  essences 
should  be  reasons." 

"  These  reasons  which  engender  not  the  man  (but)  the 
animalj,  of  which  soul  are  they  then  the  acts?  Is  it  the 
vegetative  soul?  No.,  they  are  the  acts  of  the  {reasonable^ 
soul  which  engenders  the  animal,  which  is  a  more  pow- 
erful soul,  and  for  that  reason  more  living.  The  soul 
disposed  in  a  given  fashion,  present  in  matter  disposed 
in  a  like  fashion  (since  the  soul  is  such  or  such  a  thing 
according  as  she  is  in  such  or  such  a  disposition),  even 
without  the  body  is  that  which  constitutes  the  man.  She 
fashions  the  body  in  her  own  likeness.  She  thus  produces, 
as  much  as  comports  with  the  nature  of  the  body,  an 
image  of  the  man,  as  a  painter  makes  an  image;  she  pro- 
duces, I  repeat,  an  inferior  man  (the  man  of  sensations) 
which  possesses  the  form  of  the  man,  his  ideas,  his  man- 

*  "  The  idea  (reason)  was  to  Plato  the  essence  of  a  thing.  There 
was  no  immediate  reference  to  a  mind  in  which  it  existed.  The  idea 
was  external  and  existed  independently  of  the  finite  minds  which  con- 
templated it."  .  .  .  "  According  to  Plato,  ideas  are  the  archetypes 
of  the  manifold  varieties  in  the  universe." — Fleming's  Vocabulary  of 
Philosophy,  i83. 

f  Or  generative  or  creative  ideas. 

X  By  animal  is  here  meant  a  soul  joined  to  a  body. 


44  NEOPLATONISM  ON  THE  SOUL. 

ners,  his  dispositions,  his  faculties,  but  in  an  imperfect 
manner,  because  he  is  not  the  first  man  (the  man  of  the 
intelligible  world).  He  has  sensations  of  another  kind, 
sensations  which,  though  they  seem  clear,  are  obscure, 
if  compared  with  the  superior  sensations  of  which  they 
are  the  images.  The  superior  man  (the  intelligible  man) 
is  better,  has  a  soul  more  divine  and  sensations  more 
clear.  It  is  he  no  doubt  that  Plato  defines  (in  saying: 
the  man  is  the  soul)\  he  adds  in  his  definition:  'who 
makes  use  of  a  body,'  because  the  more  divine  soul 
dominates  the  soul  which  makes  use  of  the  body,  and 
itself  uses  it  only  in  the  second  degree." 

*'  I  call  part  {of  the  soul)  separate  from  the  body  that 
which  makes  use  of  the  body  as  an  instrument,  and  call 
part  attached  to  the  body  that  which  lowers  itself  to  the 
rank  of  the  instrument." 

"  In  effect,  the  thing  engendered  by  the  soul  being 
capable  of  feeling,  the  soul  attaches  itself  to  it,  giving  it 
a  more  powerful  life;  or  rather,  she  does  not  attach  her- 
self to  it,  but  brings  it  near  to  her.  She  does  not  leave 
the  intelligible  world,  but  all  the  while  remaining  in  con- 
tact with  it,  she  holds  suspended  in  herself  the  inferior 
soul  (which  constitutes  the  man  of  senses),  she  mingles 
herself  with  that  reason  by  her  reason  (she  unites  herself 
to  that  essence  by  her  essence).  This  is  why  that  man 
(of  senses),  who  of  himself  is  obscure,  is  lighted  by  that 
illumination.^'  .   .   . 

"  Hence  it  is  that  the  man  of  the  last  degree  (the  man 
of  senses),  being  the  image  of  the  man  who  exists  on 
high,  has  reasons  (faculties)  which  are  also  images  (of 
faculties)  possessed  by  the  superior  man.  The  man  who 
exists  in  the  divine  intelligence  constitutes  the  man 
superior  to  all  the  others.  He  illumines  the  second  (the 
man  of  reason),  who  in  his  turn  illumines  the  third  (the 
man  of  senses).  The  man  of  the  last  degree  possesses  in 
a  manner  the  two  others;  he  is  not  produced  by  them,  he 
is  united  to  them  rather.      The  man  who  constitutes  us 


NEOPLATONISM  ON  THE  SOUL.  45 

has  for  act  the  man  of  the  last  degree.  This  one  receives 
something  from  the  second,  and  the  second  holds  from 
the  first  his  act."* 

"Each  one  of  us  is  what  he  is  according  as  the  man  he 
acts  from  is  (is  intellectual,  reasonable,  sensuous,  accord- 
ingas  he  exercises  intelligence,  discursive  reason,  or  sensi- 
bility). Each  one  of  us  possesses  the  three  men  in  one 
sense  (potentially)  and  does  not  possess  them  in  another 
sense  (in  act) ;  that  is  to  say,  does  not  exercise  simulta- 
neously intelligence,  reason  and  sensibility." 

"We  may  then  say  that  sensations  here  below  are  ob- 
scure thoughts,  and  thoughts  up  there  are  clear  sensa- 
tions." 

Why  Bodies  Need  the  Soul's  Presence. 

"Just  as  a  pilot  steering  his  ship  among  turbulent 
waves,  in  his  efforts  quite  forgets  the  danger  of  ship- 
wreck, souls  are  drawn  down  (into  the  gulf  of  matter)  by 
the  attention  they  give  to  the  bodies  they  govern;  after- 
wards they  are  enchained  to  their  destiny,  as  if  fascinated 
by  a  magical  attraction,  but  really  retained  by  the  power- 
ful ties  of  Nature.  If  each  body  were  as  perfect  as  the 
universe  is,  it  would  be  completely  sufficient  unto  itself,  it 
would  not  have  any  danger  to  fear,  and  the  soul  which  is  pres- 
ent in  it,  instead  of  being  present  there,  could  communicate 
life  to  it  without  quitting  the  intelligible  world. " 

Why  Souls  Descend  Into  Bodies. 
"How  comes  it  that  the  soul  descends  into  a  body, 
since  things  intelligible  are  separated  from  things  sensi- 
ble?— So  long  as  the  soul  is  an  intelligence  pure,  impassi- 
ble, so  long  as  she  enjoys  a  purely  intellectual  life  like 
the  other  intelligible  beings,  she  remains  among  them; 
for  she  has  neither  appetite  nor  desire.  But  the  part 
which  is  inferior  to  intelligence  and  capable  of  having 

*This  phrase  means:  The  discursive  reason,  which  constitutes  the 
man,  properly  speaking,  engenders  the  sensibility  which  constitutes  the 
animal. — Foot-note  by  Bouillet. 


46  NEOPLATONISM  ON  THE  SOUL. 

desire  follows  their  impulsion,  proceeds  and  removes  itself 
from  the  intelligible  world.  Desiring  to  beautify  matter 
on  the  model  of  ideas  she  has  contemplated  in  the  world 
of  intelligence,  pressed  to  display  her  fecundity  and 
bring  to  light  the  germs  that  she  carries  in  her  bosom, 
the  soul  applies  herself  to  produce  and  create,  and,  in 
consequence  of  that  application,  she  is  in  some  sort  drawn 
toward  sensible  objects.  At  first  she  shares  with  the 
universal  Soul  the  care  of  administering  the  entire  world, 
without,  however,  entering  it;  afterwards,  wishing  to 
administer  alone  a  part  of  it  only,  she  separates  herself 
from  the  universal  Soul  and  passes  into  a  body.  But 
even  then,  while  present  in  the  body,  the  soul  does  not 
give  herself  entirely  to  it,  part  of  her  remains  outside  of 
it;  thus,  her  intelligence  remains  impassible." 

Punishment^  Here  and  Hereafter. 

"  None  can  escape  the  punishment  which  unjust  actions 
merit.  The  Divine  law  (/.  e.,  natural  law)  is  inevitable, 
and  has  the  power  to  carry  its  judgments  into  effect. 
The  man  destined  to  suffer  punishment  is  drawn  uncon- 
sciously toward  it,  and  tossed  to  and  fro  with  a  ceaseless 
movement  until  at  length,  as  if  tired  of  striving  against 
what  he  would  resist,  he  yields  himself  up  at  the  suitable 
place,  and  goes  by  a  voluntary  movement  to  submit  to 
involuntary  sufferings.  The  law  prescribes  the  severity 
and  duration  of  the  punishment.  Later,  in  consequence 
of  the  harmony  which  rules  all  in  the  Universe,  the  end 
of  the  chastisement  that  the  soul  endures  comes,  and 
with  it  the  power  to  quit  the  place  of  her  sufferings." 

"  Souls  which  have  bodies  feel  by  means  of  them  the 
corporeal  punishments  inflicted  on  them." 

"The  wrongs  that  men  commit  against  one  another 
.  .  .  they  are  punished  for  by  the  depravity  which  wicked 
actions  introduce  into  their  souls,  and  after  their  death 
are  sent  to  an  inferior  place;  for  none  can  exempt  him- 
self from  the  order  established  by  the  law  of  the  Universe. " 


NEOPLATONISM  ON  THE  SOUL.  47 

"  The  chastisements  that  justly  fall  upon  the  wicked 
should  then  be  attributed  to  that  order  which  regulates 
all  things  as  they  should  be.  As  to  the  misfortunes  which 
seem  to  afflict  the  good,  contrary  to  all  justice,  accidents, 
misery,  disease,  we  may  say  that  they  are  the  conse- 
quences of  former  offences,  for  such  evils  are  closely 
linked  to  the  course  of  things  .  .  .  And  accidents  (like 
the  falling  of  a  house  upon  its  inmates),  which  seem  un- 
just, are  not  evils  for  those  who  suffer  from  them,  if  we 
consider  how  they  belong  to  the  salutary  order  of  the 
Universe;  perhapseven  they  constitute  just  penalties,  and 
are  the  expiation  of  former  faults." 

"  Plato  says  that  the  soul's  own  demon  conducts  it  to 
hell;  also  that  it  does  not  remain  attached  to  the  same 
soul  unless  this  chooses  (to  re-incarnate)  in  the  same 
condition  as  before.  What  does  it  do  before  such  choice 
is  made?  Plato  teaches  us  that  the  demon  conducts  the 
soul  to  judgment;  that  the  latter  takes  after  generation 
(re-incarnation)  the  same  form  it  had  before ;  afterwards, 
as  if  another  existence  then  began,  during  the  time 
which  runs  between  one  generation  and  another,  the 
demon  presides  over  the  chastisement  of  the  soul,  and 
that  period  is  less  for  it  a  period  of  life  than  a  period  of 
expiation." 

"  Where  will  the  soul  go  when  she  leaves  the  body? — 
She  will  not  go  where  there  is  nothing  to  receive  her. 
She  cannot  enter  into  that  which  is  not  naturally  disposed 
to  receive  her  .  .  .  Now,  as  there  are  divers  places,  it  is 
necessary  that  the  difference  (of  the  places  the  soul  goes 
to  inhabit)  depends  on  the  disposition  of  each  soul,  and 
on  the  justice  which  reigns  over  all  beings." 

Dwelling  Place  between  Re-incarnations  of  Other  Souls 
than  Sinful  Ones. 

"What  is  the  condition  of  souls  which  have  raised 
themselves  on  high?  Some  are  in  the  world  of  sense,  the 
others  are  outside  of  it."     (Havmg  never  incarnated.) 


48  NEOPLATONISM  ON  THE  SOUL. 

"Souls  which  are  in  the  world  of  sense  inhabit  the 
sun,  or  a  planet,  or  the  firmament,  according  as  they 
have  more  or  less  developed  their  reason.  It  must  be 
known,  in  fact,  that  our  soul  contains  in  herself  not  only 
the  intelligible  world,  but  also  a  disposition  conformable 
to  the  soul  of  the  world.  Now,  this  last  being  by  her 
divers  powers  extended  among  the  movable  spheres  and 
the  immovable  sphere,  our  soul  must  possess  powers 
which  conform  to  these  (spheres),  and  each  of  which 
exercises  its  proper  function." 

"  Souls  which  return  from  here  below  to  the  skies  go 
to  dwell  in  the  star  which  is  in  harmony  with  their  man- 
ners and  with  the  powers  which  they  have  developed, 
with  their  god  or  their  demon  .  .  .  When  the  soul  re- 
turns to  earth  again,  she  has  either  the  same  or  another 
demon,  according  to  the  life  she  is  to  lead." 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CHRISTIAN    SOULS. 

It  has  often  been  asserted  that  the  Persians  held  to 
bodily  resurrection,  and  this  because  some  of  them  came, 
in  time,  to  depart  from  the  orthodox  custom  of  exposing 
bodies  to  be  devoured  by  birds  and  beasts  of  prey  (in 
some  earlier  races  the  survivors  themselves  did  the  eat- 
ing, and  from  the  same  consideration  for  the  purity  of 
the  four  elements),  so  far  as  to  bury  them  encased  and 
hermetically  sealed  in  a  thick  coating  of  wax,  to  protect 
not  the  body,  but  the  earth.  But  the  assertion  is  not 
otherwise  sustained,  and  sentimental  tenderness  for  the 
dead  would  sufficiently  account  for  this  practice  of  wax 
burial.  The  Parsees,  the  present  representatives  of  the 
old  Persian  cult,  do  not  bury  in  that  way,  but  expose  to 
the  birds  of  prey,  as  of  old.  After  their  captivity  among 
the  Persians,  a  portion  of  the  Jews  imitated  them  in  this 
wax  embalmment  so  far  as  to  wrap  the  dead  in  spices  and 
deposit  them  in  caves,  where  they  could  soon  dry  up  and 
cease  to  offend  the  senses,  a  method  inferior  to  the 
other,  but  superior  to  that  of  the  Christians,  which  lets 
corruption  work  its  will,  trusting  to  some  miracle  to 
bring  things  into  some  sort  of  propriety  and  salubrity  at 
the  instant  when  Gabriel's  trumpet  shall  sound  the  call 
to  judgment.  But  the  motive  of  these  Jews  was  doubt- 
less the  same  as  prevailed  with  the  Persians,  mere  senti- 
mental tenderness,  and  certainly  was  not  the  preservation 
of  Jewish  corpses  to  take  part  in  a  Christian  resurrec- 
tion. And  so  Christianity  may  claim  to  be  the  first  and 
only  religion  to  invent  and  make  an  essential  article  of 
faith  the  resurrection  of  the  corpse.     The  Egyptians  as 


50  CHRISTIAN  SOULS. 

well  as  the  Hindus  considered  the  embodiment  of  the 
soul  in  a  living  human  form,  however  fair  and  whole- 
some, for  even  the  short  season  of  an  earth-life  a  deplor- 
able imprisonment  and  the  touching  of  a  dead  body  a 
spiritual  defilement;  but  the  Church  of  Christ,  which  has 
improved  on  all  punitive  methods  of  ancient  invention, 
substituting  for  the  mild  and  carefully  measured  metemp- 
sychosis the  fire-torture,  and  for  temporary  discipline 
with  a  view  to  reformation  an  eternal  duration  of  that 
torture,  has  chained  the  soul  a  fast  prisoner  for  eternity 
within  a  corpse,  ordaining  for  all  humanity  a  graveyard 
delivery  of  cadavers  in  every  stage  of  decay  from  rotten- 
ness to  dust,  and  for  the  vast  majority  of  those  cadavers 
(restored  to  completeness)  eternal  roasting.  It  is  true 
that  some  of  the  devils  of  ancient  times — notably  that  of 
Persia — though  mortal  at  first,  grew  longer  and  longer 
lived  as  time  wore  on,  and  that  the  punishments  they 
inflicted  became  more  severe  as  wickedness  increased 
under  their  regime^  and  it  is  true  that  whatever  may  have 
been  the  penal  laws  of  any  religion  in  its  origin,  a  devil 
practically  immortal  and  a  hell  practically  eternal  have 
finally  encrusted  themselves  upon  it;  but  Christianity 
from  the  outset  made  its  hell  eternal  and  its  devil 
immortal,  and  if,  rising  up  from  below,  as  it  were,  belief 
in  a  spiritual  body  and  world  insists  on  having  place  in 
the  minds  of  Christians  and  to  mix  and  dwell  with,  in  a 
most  confusing  way,  it  must  be  owned,  the  Church 
dogma  of  resurrection,  that  does  not  help  the  case  of  the 
dogma  at  all,  save  that  by  weakening  faith  in  it  it 
tempers  its  afflictive  force.  It  belongs  to  Christianity 
and  not  to  humanity.  The  other  belongs  to  humanity 
and  not  to  Christianity.  They  are  two  beliefs  and  not 
one,  and  if  either  be  true  the  other  must  be  false.  And 
bodily  resurrection  is  peculiarly  the  property  of  the 
Christian  Church,  because  having  its  origin  in  an  inci- 
dent not  known  in  the  history  of  any  other,  nor  has  it 
been  borrowed  by  any  other,  as  plausible  dogmas  are  apt 


CHRISTIAN  SOULS.  51 

to  be;  and  if  the  Mohammedans  hold  it  in  an  exoteric 
way,  it  was  as  Christians  they  first  acquired  it,  for  their 
religion  in  its  beginning  was  an  off-sect  of  Christianity, 
acceding  to  all  its  properties  as  of  right. 

It  is  not  forgotten  here  that  Paul  asserts  distinctly 
that  the  resurrection  will  be  of  spiritual  and  not  of 
natural  bodies,  basing  his  assertion  on  an  analogy  he 
thinks  he  found  the  planting  of  dead  bodies  to  bear  to 
the  planting  of  living  seeds.  But  nobody  seems  to  have 
believed  him,  except  a  few  who,  for  the  very  reason  they 
did,  were  deemed  heterodox,  for  the  whole  Christian 
Church  went  solidly  for  a  resurrection  of  the  very  body. 
Here  is  the  Christian  faith  as  given  by  a  Protestant 
preacher  of  high  position  and  to  be  found  in  an  American 
school  book  in  common  use  fifty  years  ago: 

"  Scattered  limbs,  and  all 
The  various  bones,  obsequious  to  the  call. 
Self  moved,  advance  ;  the  neck  perhaps  to  meet 
The  distant  head,  the  distant  legs,  the  feet. 
Dreadful  to  view,  see  through  the  dusky  sky 
Fragments  of  bodies  in  confusion  fly, 
To  distant  regions  journeying,  there  to  claim 
Deserted  members  and  complete  the  frame. 
The  severed  head  and  trunk  shall  meet  once  more 
Though  realms  should  rise  between,  and  oceans  roar. 
The  trumpet's  sound  each  vagrant  mote  shall  hear, 
Or  fixed  in  earth,  or  high  afloat  in  air, 
Obey  the  signal,  wafted  in  the  wind 
And  not  one  sleeping  atom  lag  behind." 

But  a  painting  by  a  famous  artist  in  a  cathedral  some- 
where in  Italy  does  not  represent  the  miraculous  recon- 
struction at  the  last  day  as  being  near  so  complete. 
Here  is  a  description  of  it: 

"Then  follows  the  general  resurrection,  a  wonderful 
compartment  or  canto.  Luca  Signorelli  has  imagined 
that  according  to  a  person's  good  or  bad  deeds  in  this 
world,  would  be  his  perfection  or  deformity  at  the  last 
day.     Some,  therefore,  are  grinning  skulls,  and  naked 


62  CHRIS TIA N  SO  ULS. 

cross-bones,  hideously  feeling  about  for  their  remaining 
members;  others  are  bony  skeletons  lifting  up  their  skin- 
less eyeballs  on  which  will  never  pour  the  day,  and  the 
yawning,  hungry  jaw  which  will  now  never  feed  upon  the 
long  offered,  long  rejected  tree  of  life.  The  tongue,  if 
such  there  be,  is  parched  and  dried  up  in  the  rootless, 
moistless  palate,  and  can  express  fear  and  horror  only, 
of  all  the  many  passions  for  which  it  once  found  utter- 
ance." 

If  we  may  suppose  the  believers  who  have  rejected 
the  theory  of  Paul  and  accepted  the  one  so  daintily  ex- 
emplified in  these  two  extracts,  the  first  from  the  Prot- 
estant and  the  other  from  the  Catholic  side  of  the 
Church,  to  have  reasoned  on  the  question  at  all,  several 
good  reasons  may  be  found  in  their  favor  and  against 
him.  An  analogy  is  hardly  an  argument;  an  illustration 
is  certainly  none;  and  yet  Paul's  seed-planting  notion 
amounts  to  less  than  the  least  of  these.  "Thou  fool," 
he  says,  in  ist  Corinthians,  Chapter  15,  "  that  which 
thou  thyself  sowest  is  not  quickened  except  it  die;  and 
that  which  thou  sowest  thou  sowest  not  the  body  that 
shall  be,  but  a  bare  grain,  it  may  chance  of  wheat,  or  of 
some  other  kind;  but  God  giveth  it  a  body  even  as  it 
pleases  him,  and  to  each  seed  a  body  of  its  own."  But 
a  dead  seed  will  never  grow  any  kind  of  grain ;  that  part 
of  it  which  sprouts  is  precisely  what  does  not  die.  Paul 
may  have  been  thinking  of  the  notion  the  Pharisees  had 
that  in  the  teeth  of  a  man,  because  they  seemed  to  be 
imperishable,  lay  the  germ  of  life,  as  a  plant  germ  in  its 
seed,  and  for  which  reason  they  withheld  from  cremation 
the  bodies  of  children  too  young  to  have  teeth  that  could 
resist  fire.  But  there  again  the  new  life  was  expected  to 
arise,  not  from  what  decayed  but  from  what  did  not. 
Again,  the  learned  Jew's  method  of  raising  living  spirit- 
ual bodies  by  planting  dead  natural  ones,  leaves  out  of 
view  the  quick,  who,  at  the  time  he  wrote,  since  that 
was  before  the  hope  of  a  general  resurrection  as  a  daily- 


CHRISTIAN  SOULS.  53 

to-be-looked-for  event  had  been  given  up,  and  by  far  the 
larger  number  of  Christian  converts  were  living  people, 
would  have  played  a  rather  important  part  in  the  scene. 
And  if  each  of  these  had  to  die  as  he  insisted  that  all 
seed  must,  before  a  spiritual  body  could  sprout,  the 
quick  would  have  to  be  converted  into  dead  one  and  all, 
as  a  preliminary  proceeding.  And  must  they  not  have 
had  to  be  buried — planted — as  well  ?  And  then  would 
not  the  delay  necessary  for  their  germination  have  sadly 
deranged  the  ceremonies  of  the  great  day  ?  But  whether 
these  considerations  were  found  weighty  or  not  by  the 
foolish  ones  whose  simple  enquiries  Paul  was  replying  to, 
even  they  could  tell  him  that  it  was  the  natural  and  un- 
decayed  body  of  Jesus  that  was  raised  from  the  tomb, 
and  how  in  that  raised-up  body  he  declared  he  was  not 
a  spirit,  but  tangible  flesh  and  blood,  and  that  his  resur- 
rection was  then,  as  it  is  now,  the  essential  basis  of  the 
Christian  faith,  and  proof  of  resurrection  and  immortality 
for  all.  Sir  Stork,  President  of  the  British  Royal  Society, 
has  lately  told  us  it  is  the  only  proof.  Moreover,  some 
disposition  was  to  be  made  of  the  dead  saints  who  at  the 
crucifixion  left  their  graves  and  went  about  the  streets, 
appearing  unto  many,  and  if  Paul's  theory  was  true  such 
a  disposition  must  have  been  rather  a  difficult  one.  If, 
as  it  requires,  these  saints  got  out  of  the  ground  they 
were  buried  in  by  sprouting,  and  came  forth  in  his  sort 
of  spiritual  bodies,  they  could  hardly  have  been  expected 
to  resume  their  flesh,  go  back  and  lie  down  in  their 
graves  again,  again  become  seed,  to  decay  and  sprout 
afresh  when  judgment  day  should  come;  and  yet  until 
then  they  could  get  no  lodging  in  heaven  or  on  earth, 
being  excluded  from  the  categories  alike  of  the  quick 
and  dead.  If  they  rose  in  their  natural  bodies  the  diffi- 
culties would  have  been  easier  got  over  by  returning 
those  to  the  graves  they  came  from  and  their  souls  to 
whence  they  came,  wherever  that  may  have  been.  So 
Paul's  argument  has  gone  for  naught,  and  the  Christian 


64  CHRISTIAN  SOULS. 

world  has  to-day  no  other  belief  concerning  the  soul's 
immortality  than  as  united  to  the  very  body  that  was 
buried.  And  notwithstanding  Paul's  theory  of  a  spirit- 
ual body  has  place  in  the  Church  of  England's  burial 
service,  the  orthodox  authoritative  Christian  belief  is, 
and  has  been  through  the  centuries  that  have  gone  by 
since  the  body  of  Jesus  rose  from  the  tomb,  that  every 
corpse  will  rise  as  really  as  it  did,  when  at  the  trumpet's 
blast  earth  and  sea  shall  give  up  their  dead,  to  be  re- 
united to  their  long  absent  souls  recalled  for  that  pur- 
pose from  some  place  of  waiting,  God  knows  where,  and 
thus  reanimated  be  put  on  an  equality  with  the  quick 
who  never  knew  the  grave,  in  all  subsequent  proceed- 
ings. Accordingly  the  faithful  who  were  rich  enough  to 
afford  it  have  had  themselves  buried  in  the  cloisters  of 
churches,  in  the  walls,  below  the  pavements  of  aisles  and 
chancels  and  even  altars,  thrusting  themselves  in  the  most 
unsanitary  way  as  close  under  Gabriel's  nose  as  money 
could  carry  them,  and  Catholics  at  least  deem  burial  out- 
side of  the  church-yard  a  deplorable  calamity,  damaging 
to  the  prospect  of  the  soul's  obtaining  pardon  for  its 
sins,  so  closely  is  it  by  them  thought  to  be  connected 
with  its  shell  even  after  death  and  before  resurrection. 
As  late  as  the  year  1890  the  Pope  has  authoritatively 
declared  that  cremation  of  the  dead  "  is  a  detestable 
practice,  a  Pagan  custom  revived  by  evil  men  belonging 
to  the  Masonic  sect,  to  obliterate  the  sentiment  of 
reverence  and  remove  the  fear  of  death,  that  great  ful- 
crum of  religion." 

As  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
Protestants  became  somewhat  sensitive  to  the  ridicule, 
if  not  to  the  terror  the  dogma  of  the  resurrection  began 
to  cause  in  intelligent  minds,  and  to  help  the  case  one 
Thomas  Boston,  a  learned  Presbyterian  divine,  published 
in  Scotland  a  work  entitled,  "The  Fourfold  States,"  in 
which  he  argued  that  a  single  particle  of  insensible 
perspiration  which  had  escaped  from  a  man  during  his 


CHRISTIAN  SOULS.  65 

life  would  be  sufificient  to  serve  as  a  nucleus  for  the 
resurrection  body  to  form  itself  upon,  which  was  going 
even  a  little  further  than  many  do,  who,  toiling  and 
sweating  to  reconcile  science  with  religion,  at  this  very 
present  time  are  arguing  that  it  is  only  necessary,  in 
order  to  have  a  body  ready  for  the  resurrection,  that  a 
single  material  germ  or  organized  particle  of  the  body 
at  death  should  survive  until  then.  But  the  latest  and 
freshest  authority  on  this  point  is  to  be  found  in  a  book 
called  "The  Pathway  of  Life,"  by  the  Rev.  T.  DeWitt 
Talmage,  one  of  the  greatest  of  American  Protestants, 
on  pages  24,  25,  26,  of  which  he  says: 

"The  forms  that  we  laid  away  with  our  broken  hearts 
must  rise  again.  Father  and  mother — they  must  come 
out.  Husband  and  wife — they  must  come  out.  Brother 
and  sister — they  must  come  out.  Our  darling  children 
— they  must  come  out.  The  eyes  that  with  trembling 
fingers  we  closed  must  open  in  the  lustre  of  resurrection 
morn.  The  arms  that  we  folded  must  join  in  embrace 
of  reunion.  The  beloved  voice  that  was  hushed  must 
be  retuned.  The  beloved  form  must  come  up  without 
its  infirmities,  without  its  fatigues — it  must  come  up." 

"Oh!  how  long  it  seems  for  some  of  you,  waiting — 
waiting  for  the  resurrection.  How  long!  How  long! 
Behold  the  arch-angel  hovering.  He  takes  the  trumpet, 
points  it  this  way,  puts  its  lips  to  his  lips,  and  then 
blows  one  long,  loud,  terrific,  thunderous,  reverberating 
and  resurrectionary  blast.  Look!  Look!  They  arise! 
The  dead!  The  dead!  Some  coming  forth  from  the 
family  vault;  some  from  the  city  cemetery;  some  from 
a  country  grave-yard.  Here  a  spirit  is  joined  to  its 
body,  and  there  another  spirit  is  joined  to  another  body, 
and  millions  of  departed  spirits  are  assorting  their 
bodies  and  then  reclothing  themselves  in  forms  now 
radiant  for  ascension." 

"  The  earth  begins  to  burn — the  bonfire  of  a  great 
victory.     All   ready  now   for  the   procession   of    recon- 


66  CHRISTIAN  SOULS. 

structed  humanity!  Upward  and  away!  Christ  leads, 
and  all  the  Christian  dead  follow — battalion  after  bat- 
talion, nation  after  nation." 

But  a  better  authority  with  English  readers  would  be 
the  famous  Spurgeon,  who  in  sermon  17,  second  series, 
page  275,  says: 

"  There  is  a  real  fire  in  hell,  as  truly  as  you  have  now 
a  real  body — a  fire  exactly  like  that  which  we  have  on 
earth  in  everything  except  this,  that  it  will  not  con- 
sume, though  it  will  torture  you.  You  have  seen  as- 
bestos lying  in  the  fire  red  hot,  but  when  you  take  it 
out  is  unconsumed.  So  your  body  will  be  prepared  by 
God  in  such  a  way  that  it  will  burn  forever  without 
being  consumed;  it  will  lie,  not,  as  you  consider,  in 
metaphorical  fire,  but  in  actual  flame.  Did  our  Saviour 
mean  fictions  when  he  said  he  would  cast  body  and  soul 
into  hell  ?  What  should  there  be  a  pit  for  if  there  were 
no  bodies  ?  Why  fire,  why  chains,  if  there  were  to  be  no 
bodies  ?  Can  fire  touch  the  soul  ?  Can  pits  shut  in  the 
spirits  ?  Can  chains  fetter  souls  ?  No  !  Pits  and  fire 
and  chains  are  for  bodies,  and  bodies  shall  be  there. 
Thou  wilt  sleep  in  the  dust  a  little  while.  When  thou 
diest  thy  soul  will  be  tormented  alone — that  will  be  a 
hell  for  it — but  at  the  day  of  judgment  thy  body  will 
join  thy  soul,  and  thou  wilt  have  twin  hells,  body  and 
soul  shall  be  together,  full  of  pain;  thy  soul  sweating  in 
its  inmost  pores  drops  of  blood,  and  thy  body  from  head 
to  foot  suffused  with  agony;  conscience,  judgment,  all 
tortured;  but  more,  thy  head  tormented  with  racking 
pains;  thine  eyes  starting  from  their  sockets  with  sights 
of  blood  and  woe;  thine  ears  tormented  with  sullen 
moans  and  hollow  groans  and  shrieks  of  tortured  ghosts; 
thine  heart  heating  high  with  fever,  thy  pulse  rattling 
at  an  enormous  rate  in  agony,  thy  limbs  cracking  like 
the  martyrs  in  the  fire  and  yet  unburned,  thyself  put  in 
a  vessel  of  hot  oil,  pained,  yet  undestroyed,  all  thy  veins 
becoming  a  road  for  the  hot  feet  of  pain  to  travel  on; 


CHRISTIAN  SOULS.  57 

every  nerve  a  string  on  which  the  devil  shall  ever  play 
his  diabolical  tune  of  Hell's  Unutterable  Lament;  thy 
soul  forever  and  ever  aching,  and  thy  body  palpitating 
in  unison  with  thy  soul." 

A  catechism  published  in  Italy,  with  the  sanction  of 
the  Church  of  Rome,  almost  matches  Spurgeon's  state- 
ment, though  with  some  variation  in  details. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

RELIC    WORSHIP. 

Kindred  to  corpse  resurrection  is  a  practice  which  is 
common  to  Buddhism  and  Christianity — namely,  relic 
worship.  It  seems  to  depend  on  a  supposed  connection 
that  binds  the  immortal  part  of  a  man  who  has  died  to 
places,  persons  and  things  which  he  was  associated  with 
while  alive  —  with  his  habitation,  garments  worn  and 
objects  used  by  him,  and  especially  with  his  grave  or 
tomb  and  the  body  he  has  left  in  it.  Whether  well 
founded  or  not,  the  common  notion  that  there  is  such  a 
connection  has  been  humored  by  the  occult  powers,  will- 
ing to  communicate  with  the  living  under  guise  of  the 
dead,  and  the  facts  thus  coming  to  its  support  are  as 
numerous  and  common  as  they  are  indisputable.  Unlike 
the  Brahmins,  to  whom  the  touch  of  a  corpse  is  a  pollu- 
tion calling  for  purifying  ceremonial;  unlike  the  old 
Persians,  who  punished  severely  the  burying,  burning, 
exposing  to  the  air  or  casting  into  the  water  the  remains 
of  any  animal,  besides  requiring  purification  after  the 
act  with  such  drollery  of  unction  and  drink  as  would,  to 
the  modern  mind  and  stomach,  at  least,  make  matters 
worse — in  which  requirement,  however,  they  were  no 
droller  than  the  Hindus;  unlike  the  Egyptians,  whose 
sacred  writings  tell  us  that  embalming  was  instituted  to 
protect  from  pollution  the  four  elements;  the  Buddhists, 
and  following  them  the  Christians,  have  shown  a  saturnine 
fancy  for  things  cadaverous,  and  made  use  of  the  most 
revolting  object  earth  can  show  to  allure  God  down  from 
his  throne  in  heaven  and  saints  from  their  rest  in  para- 
dise.    Says  Mr.   Lillie,  who  seems  to   have  thoroughly 


RELIC    WORSHIP.  59 

studied  Buddhism  during  the  nine  years  he  gave  atten- 
tion to  it  (Buddha  and  Early  Buddhism,  by  Arthur 
Lillie,  47):  "  Buddhism  was  plainly  an  elaborate  appa- 
ratus to  nullify  the  action  of  evil  spirits  by  the  aid  of 
good  spirits  operating  at  their  highest  potency  through 
the  instrumentality  of  the  corpse,  or  a  portion  of  the 
corpse,  of  the  chief  aiding  spirit.  The  Buddhist  temple, 
the  Buddhist  rites,  the  Buddhist  liturgy,  all  seemed 
based  on  this  idea,  that  the  whole  or  portions  of  a  dead 
body  were  necessary."  {Ibid.,  129.)  Again,  "Early 
Buddhism  was  an  apparatus  to  foil  the  power  of  evil  by 
the  instrumentality  of  the  human  remains  of  some  assist- 
ing dead  saint."     {Ibid.,  132.) 

Immaterial  is  it  whether  the  Church  of  Rome  copied 
the  Asiatics  six  hundred  years  after  the  fact,  or,  as  the 
Pope  would  say,  the  Asiatics  copied  the  Church  of  Rome 
six  hundred  years  before  the  fact,  Christianity  drew  its 
life  from  the  body  of  death  as  much  as  Buddhism  did. 
For  a  long  time  the  early  Christians  worked  their  necro- 
mancy in  the  Catacombs  by  invocations  chanted  over  the 
corpses  of  their  dead,  and  so  much  did  they  like  it  down 
there  that  when  Constantine  built  churches  above  ground 
and  provided  each  with  the  essential  relics,  they  were 
loath  to  make  use  of  them.  Of  both  these  great  religions 
Lillie  sums  up  the  case  thus:  "Church  and  temple  and 
tope  have  a  common  origin.  It  is  not  a  place  of  worship 
utilized  as  a  cemetery,  but  a  cemetery  utilized  as  a  place 
of  worship." 

Even  Protestant  Luther  is  said  to  have  shown  a  certain 
respect  towards  relics,  although  little  of  it  has  come  down 
to  our  day  as  affecting  any  Protestant  Church  except 
that  shown  in  the  exhibition  of  "the  elements"  in  the 
Lord's  Supper,  which  certainly,  when  offered  by  those 
who  believe  in  the  "  real  presence,"  amounts  out  and  out 
to  necromancy,  though  in  the  others  to  merely  a  trace  of 
it.  As  to  the  Catholic  Church  it  is  hard  to  detect  it  in 
any  specific  article  of  faith,  but  it  surely  cannot  avoid  the 


60  RELIC    WORSHIP. 

charge  of  practicing  corpse-worship,  when  its  priests 
even  in  this  age  of  reason  habitually  ejaculate  invocations 
to  gods  and  sainted  dead  men  over  messes  of  bread  and 
wine  blest,  exhibited  and  sworn  to  as  the  very  body  and 
blood  of  Christ,  himself  really  present  the  while — really 
and  literally  so — without  figure  of  speech,  equivocation 
or  mental  reservation,  attending  at  the  call  of  their  the- 
urgic  practice;  and  while  in  a  receptacle  made  in  the 
altar  on  which  the  feast  is  spread  and  actually  known  and 
called  by  the  name  of  "  tomb  "  are  always  kept  by  decree 
of  the  Church  "  dead  men's  bones  and  all  uncleanliness." 
And  it  is  only  within  the  year  of  this  writing  that  the 
Church  has  decreed  that  henceforth  no  healing  done,  no 
matter  how  clearly  under  her  auspices,  shall  be  accounted 
a  miracle  unless  effected  in  connection  with  the  relics 
of  some  officially  recognized  saint  or  martyr;  evidently 
cures  wrought  by  Christian  science,  mind-cure,  faith-cure, 
spiritual  mediums  or  mesmerizers  are  getting  trouble- 
somely  common  and  quite  too  cheap  to  please  Mother 
Church,  and  so,  late  in  the  day  as  it  is,  she  resolves  to 
set  her  mark  of  genuineness  on  but  a  very  limited  num- 
ber of  such  cases,  and  leaves  all  others  to  the  credit  of 
her  friend,  the  enemy  of  man,  whose  practice  meanwhile 
is  increasing  at  a  rate  that  should  make  her  jealous. 

The  Church  of  Rome,  in  her  greediness  for  the  spoils 
of  Paganism,  seems  to  have  stolen  from  it  more  than  she 
could  well  carry  off,  or  her  Pantheon  well  hold,  and  so 
has  been  forced  to  crowd  one  thing  upon  another  in  a 
confused  way.  Thus  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  is  made  to 
do  duty  as  (i)  a  spectacle  of  torture  got  up  to  slake  his 
Father's  thirst  for  vengeance  or  satisfy  his  sense  of  jus- 
tice, no  matter  which,  the  agony  being  all  the  same;  (2) 
as  a  Jewish  scapegoat  proceeding  whereby  in  the  name 
of  justice  the  just  is  laden  with  the  sin  of  the  unjust;  (3) 
a  "  shedding  of  blood  for  the  remission  of  sin,"  as  Saint 
Paul  puts  it,  a  notion  got  from  the  use  of  blood  in  old 
magic;  (4)  as  a  meat  and  drink  offering  supposed  to  be 


RELIC    WORSHIP.  61 

pleasing  to  the  taste  of  Jehovah,  as  such  offerings  were 
to  that  of  all  gods  in  early  and  brutal  ages  and  is  now  to 
gods  of  savage  peoples  as  well  as  to  some  tribes  of  those 
people  themselves,  the  Fijis,  for  instance,  with  the  curious 
variation  from  other  sacrifices  that  this  is  offered,  not  by 
those  who  are  to  profit  by  it,  namely.  Christian  sinners, 
but  by  their  enemies,  the  Jews,  who  never  dreamed  how 
much  good  their  cruel  act  was  to  do  to  them  they  hated. 
The  feast  of  the  Holy  Communion  copies  the  old 
Pagan  feast  of  the  dead,  still  kept  in  China,  wherein, 
after  the  food  has  been  merely  shown  to  the  spirits  of 
the  dead,  supposed  to  be  assisting,  it  is  eaten  up  by 
the  living.  The  bread  exhibited  on  the  altar  recalls 
the  *'  show  bread  "  of  the  Jews.  The  wine,  transmuted 
into  blood,  as  blood  gives  a  well-known  potent  means 
for  helping  or  compelling  both  gods  and  dead  men  to 
manifest  themselves.  Paul  seemed  to  think  God  could 
not  be  induced  to  remit  sins,  without  "the  shedding  of 
blood."  The  priests  of  Baal  emptied  their  own  veins 
by  gashing  themselves  with  knives,  in  hopes  it  would 
make  their  god  come  and  light  the  altar-fires.  And  in 
our  day  it  is  said  the  Kurds,  by  means  of  it,  do  raise 
some  most  horrid,  tangible  spectres.  The  communion 
ceremonies  having  produced  on  the  altar  the  very  body 
and  blood  of  Jesus,  his  real  presence  is  invoked  and 
obtained  by  means  of  words  said  over  it,  just  as  by 
means  of  his  mummy  the  Egyptian  spirit  was  compelled 
to  attend.  Yet,  really  the  only  thing  authorized  by 
Jesus  at  his  last  supper  with  his  friends  on  earth,  was  a 
festive  commemoration  of  the  ordinary  kind.  In  keep- 
ing with  these  incongruities  is  the  fact  that  the  viands 
are  spread  forth  on  an  altar  that  is  at  once  a  supper 
table  and  a  tomb,  and  in  its  origin  was  a  cooking  range 
as  well.  So  far  as  the  celebration  of  mass  is  addressed 
to  the  Deity,  it  is  theurgic  work;  so  far  as  addressed  to 
the  saint  whose  dust  it  is  chanted  over  or  other  saints,  it 
is  necromancy. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CHINESE  SOULS, 

Out  of  the  belief  that  in  spiritual  form  the  departed 
still  live  in  a  spiritual  world,  yet  still  retain  their  interest 
in  this,  grew  that  system  of  necromantic  practices  which 
in  India  and  Egypt,  and  in  fact  every  country  of 
antiquity,  obtained  acceptance  among  the  body  of  the 
people,  without  regard  to  official  religion,  and  which  it 
is  thought  by  the  learned  preceded  all  religions,  as  it  has 
lived  with  them  all,  and  which  in  a  modern  form  bids 
fair  to  outlive  one  of  them,  at  least.  It  is  called  ancestor 
worship,  though  there  is  little  or  no  worship  about  it. 
In  China  it  has  attained  its  most  notable  development, 
and  as  practiced  there,  is  most  worthy  of  attention. 
Befor,e  Confucius  came  or  Buddhism  was  heard  of,  pos- 
sibly before  old  Taoism  appeared,  it  existed  as  to-day  it 
exists.  Confucius,  foe  to  superstition  as  he  was,  did  not 
disturb  it.  Of  the  Kweishin,  or  beings  corresponding  to 
the  "communicating  spirits"  at  modern  seances,  he 
said:  "We  look  for  them  but  we  do  not  see  them,  listen, 
but  we  do  not  hear  them;  yet  they  enter  into  all  things, 
and  there  is  nothing  without  them."  "  Their  approaches 
you  cannot  surmise,  and  can  you  treat  them  with  indif- 
ference ? "  This  teacher,  who  left  no  affirmation  of 
belief  in  man's  immortality,  nevertheless  so  respected 
ancestor  worship  in  the  form  he  found  in  vogue,  that  he 
not  only  did  not  discourage  it,  but  by  clear  implication 
sanctioned  it,  though  coupling  his  sanction  with  an 
injunction  that  in  its  practice  "no  enquiry  should  be 
made  concerning  the  nature  of  the  spirits."  Of  it  Tro- 
fessor    Williams    says    ("The    Middle    Kingdom,"    ii, 


CHINESE   SOULS.  63 

236),  after  alluding  to  the  effect  on  the  people  of  China 
of  their  three  other  so-called  religions:  "  But  the  heart 
of  the  nation  reposes  more  on  the  rites  offered  at  the 
family  shrine  to  the  'two  living  divinities'  who  preside 
in  the  hall  of  ancestors  than  on  all  the  rest.  Every 
natural  feeling  serves  indeed  to  strengthen  its  simple 
cultus.  In  every  household  a  shrine,  a  tablet,  an  ora- 
tory or  domestic  temple — according  to  the  position  of 
the  family — contains  the  simple  legend  of  the  two  ances- 
tral names,  written  on  a  slip  of  paper  or  carved  on  a 
board.  Incense  is  burned  before  it,  daily  or  on  the  new 
and  full  moons;  and  in  April  the  people  everywhere 
gather  at  the  family  graves  to  sweep  them  and  worship 
the  departed  around  a  festive  sacrifice.  Parents  and 
children  meet  and  bow  before  the  tablet,  and  in  their 
simple  cheer  contract  no  associations  with  temples  or 
idols,  monasteries  or  priests,  processions  or  flags  and 
music.  It  is  of  the  family,  and  '  the  stranger  intermed- 
dleth  not  with  it.  *  As  the  children  grow  up,  the  worship 
of  ancestors  whom  they  never  saw  is  exchanged  for  that 
of  nearer  ones  who  bore  and  nurtured,  clothed,  taught 
and  cheered  them  in  helpless  childhood  and  hopeful 
youth,  and  the  whole  is  thus  rendered  more  personal, 
vivid,  and  endearing.  There  is  nothing  revolting  or 
cruel  about  it,  but  everything  is  orderly,  kind  and  simple, 
calculated  to  strengthen  the  family  relationship,  cement 
the  affection  between  brothers  and  sisters,  and  uphold 
habits  of  filial  reverence  and  obedience.  Though  the 
strongest  motive  for  the  worship  arises  out  of  the 
belief  that  success  in  worldly  affairs  depends  on  the  sup- 
port given  to  parental  spirits  in  Hades,  just  as  the 
strongest  motive  for  worshipping  God  may,  who  will 
resent  continued  neglect  by  withholding  their  blessing, 
yet,  in  the  course  of  ages,  it  has  influenced  Chinese  char- 
acter in  promoting  industry  and  cultivating  habits  of 
domestic  care  and  thrift  beyond  all  estimation."  The 
gods  are  to  be  feared  and  their  wrath  deprecated,  but 


64  CHINESE   SOULS. 

"the  illustrious  ones  who  have  completed  their  proba- 
tion represent  love,  care  and  interest  to  the  worshippers 
if  they  do  not  fail  of  their  duties." 

The  author  goes  on  to  say :  "  The  three  leading  results 
here  noticed,  viz.,  the  prevention  of  a  priestly  caste, 
the  confimation  of  parental  authority  in  its  own  sphere, 
and  the  elevation  of  the  woman  and  wife  to  a  parity  with 
the  man  and  husband,  do  much  to  explain  the  perpetuity 
of  Chinese  institutions."  After  which  admissions  we 
may  excuse  the  Professor  for  remarking  that  ancestor 
worship  was  not  sanctioned  by  the  scriptures  he  believed 
in,  inasmuch  as  it  carried  filial  piety  too  far  to  please 
Jehovah,  the  jealous  God. 

But  until  one  knows  more  than  this  of  the  actual  con- 
tent of  ancestor  worship  in  China,  he  will  hardly  be  able 
to  understand  how  it  should  have  produced  the  great 
results  above  attributed  to  it.  Let  us  complete  the 
account  Professor  Williams  has  given  of  it,  and  which  in 
its  shortcoming  might  remind  one  of  a  wheel  with  the 
hub  left  out. 

Johnson,  in  his  work  on  the  religions  of  China,  in  the 
chapter  on  this  Worship  and  in  immediate  connection 
with  it,  though  he  tells  us  that  the  whole  of  American 
spiritualism,  planchette  and  all,  have  been  common  there 
in  all  times,  is  equally  careful  not  to  give  us  any  idea 
of  what  that  worship  really  consists  in.  Both  writers, 
the  one  a  Christian  and  the  other  a  skeptic,  though 
highly  commending  the  worship  (which  by  the  way  the 
Emperor  once  assured  the  Pope  in  an  epistle  was  wor- 
ship in  no  other  sense  than  that  of  gratitude  and  respect), 
fall  far  short  of  telling  the  whole  story  of  it,  which  is 
very  much  like  falling  short  of  telling  the  truth.  But  it 
is  not  unusual  for  men  who  go  to  foreign  countries  to 
write  books  about  them  to  imitate  the  merchants  who  go 
to  make  money,  and  bring  back  only  what  there  is  a 
ready  market  for  at  home.  At  the  time  these  gentlemen 
wrote  American  spiritualism  was  having  a  hard  struggle 


-y 


CHINESE    SOULS.  65 

with  the  two  learned  professions  whose  interests  it 
threatened  and  was  darkly  beclouded  with  the  contempt- 
uous ignorance  of  men  of  science  already  weighted 
down  with  knowledge  or  conceit  of  knowledge  beyond 
their  power  easily  to  carry;  and  it  would  not  have  been 
expedient  to  make  it  known  that  what  was  thus  opposed 
and  condemned  here  had  its  true  counterpart  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  world  in  the  institution  whose  effects 
they  had  so  much  praised  and  which  had  maintained  itself 
there  with  beneficent  results  since  pre-historic  days. 
Yet  such  is  the  truth.  The  Chinese  worship  of  ances- 
tors is,  as  to  ceremonial,  a  small  affair.  The  true  content 
of  it  is  nothing  less  than  habitual  and  familiar  com- 
munion with  the  dead,  or  what  is  believed  to  be  such. 
A  learned  Chinese  gentleman  of  the  lettered  class,  who 
came  to  this  country  as  attache  to  the  Chinese  Legation, 
gave  the  following  account  of  it:  The  family,  assembled 
in  the  ancestral  hall,  sit  for  awhile  in  silent  meditation, 
exerting  an  earnest  desire  that  the  ancestors  will  com- 
municate to  them  the  information  and  guidance  needed 
in  relation  to  the  conduct  of  the  fortunes  of  the  family 
or  those  of  any  members  of  it — whether  a  son  should 
enter  upon  competitive  study,  whether  a  certain  piece  of 
property  should  be  bought,  or  another  sold — a  certain 
field  planted  with  this  or  that  kind  of  grain — a  certain 
marriage  contracted  or  concerning  any  other  temporal 
matter.  Usually  they  have  prepared  themselves  by 
twenty-four  hours  of  fasting,  or  at  least  abstinence  from 
fats.  The  simple  ceremonial  does  not  include  singing 
or  praying  unless  a  sort  of  invocation  written  on  paper 
and  then  burnt  up  can  be  called  such.  After  the  quietude 
and  concentration  of  mind  which  is  the  real  moving 
force  in  necromancy,  theurgy,  and  every  other  branch 
of  magic,  has  had  the  effect  of  inducing  on  the  part  of 
the  "spirits "a  readiness  to  respond,  an  answer  is  given 
either  by  planchette  writing,  in  the  way  now  to  be  de- 
scribed, or  by  trance  speaking,  or  other  modes  known  also 


66  CHINESE   SOULS. 

to  modern  spiritualism,  but  most  commonly  it  is  by 
writing.  A  table  having  been  covered  vs^ith  a  thin  and 
€ven  layer  of  sand,  an  instrument  is  laid  on  it  called  a 
"sand  pen,"  usually  in  form  of  a  cross  with  a  point  turn- 
ing downwards  from  the  end  of  the  longer  arm  and  at 
right  angles  with  it,  for  tracing  the  letters.  At  the  pro- 
pitious moment  a  boy  under  the  age  of  puberty,  who  is 
present  for  the  purpose,  lifts  all  of  the  pen  but  its  point 
from  the  table  by  sustaining  with  the  back  of  an  index 
finger  each  of  the  two  shorter  arms.  This  is  done  with 
the  backs  of  the  fingers  as  a  precaution  against  uncon- 
scious muscular  motion  or  conscious  deceit  on  his  part. 

Here  we  find  a  true  spiritual  "  seance  "  such  as  is  now 
disturbing  the  quiet  of  all  science,  philosophy  and  re- 
ligion, in  the  beneficent  ancestor  worship  of  China,  whose 
beginning  is  traced  back  thousands  of  years  and  then 
lost  in  the  dim  distance  of  unchronicled  time.  As  said 
before,  it  is  not  a  religion,  but  merely  a  popular  practice 
of  one  form  of  magic,  not  to  save  the  souls,  but  to  ad- 
vance the  fortunes  of  the  members  of  the  family,  console 
them  and  promote  their  comfort.  It  had  been  sanc- 
tioned by  both  of  the  intrudiiig  "religions,"'  so  called, 
of  Confucius  and  Buddha,  and  came  down  from  antiquity 
in  company  with  old  Taoism.  Even  the  Jesuit  mission- 
aries approved  it,  by  allowing  their  converts  to  continue 
its  practice,  which  is  proof  enough  that  it  was  a  good 
institution  and  also  not  a  religion.  Little  more,  in  fact, 
are  either  of  the  three  other  so-called  religions  of  China 
really  so  in  any  sense  understood  by  Christians. 

R.  H.  Conwell,  in  his  "Travels  in  China,"  quoted  by 
Dr.  Peebles  in  his  book,  "Around  the  World,"  says  : 
*'  Not  only  do  the  Chinese  Spiritualists  believe  in  the 
same  agencies  and  same  results  which  distinguish  Spirit- 
ualists here,  but  they  also  practice  all  the  methods 
adopted  in  this  for  spiritual  manifestations  and  a  hun- 
dred others  that  do  not  seem  to  be  known  here.  ..." 
"  During  the  stay  of  spirits  in  that  nether  world,  the 


CHINESE   SOULS.  67 

lower  spheres,  they  can  rap  on  furniture,  pull  the  gar- 
ments of  the  living,  make  noises  in  the  air,  play  on 
musical  instruments,  show  their  footprints  in  the  sand, 
and,  taking  possession  of  human  beings,  talk  through 
them," 

Says  Peebles  himself,  in  his  account  of  what  he  learned 
in  China:  "  These  Orientals  have  their  trance  mediums, 
mostly  females;  their  writing  mediums,  using  a  pointed, 
pen-like  stick,  and  a  table  sprinkled  with  white  sand ;  their 
personating  mediums,  giving  excellent  tests;  their  seers, 
who  professedly  reveal  the  future,  and  their  clairvoyants; 
who,  to  express  their  meaning  in  English,  'see  in  the 
dark.'  "  And  he  quotes  Gonzolo,  a  missionary,  as  say- 
ing :  "There  is  no  driving  out  of  these  Chinese  the 
cursed  belief  that  the  spirits  of  their  ancestors  are  about 
them,  availing  themselves  of  every  opportunity  to  give 
advice  and  counsel." 

In  confirmation  of  what  had  been  said  of  the  great 
antiquity  of  Spiritualism  in  China,  there  is  quoted  a 
record  of  an  Imperial  decree  against  it  by  the  Emperor 
Yao,  who  reigned  2337  years  B.  C. 

This  being  so,  and  ancestor  worship  having  kept  the 
priest  out  of  the  house  and  the  family  out  of  the  temple, 
it  may  be  truly  said  that  not  even  the  great  old  Greeks 
were  so  little  afflicted  as  these  people  have  been,  by 
temple  or  priest.  With  Buddhism  to  satisfy  in  full  that 
craving  for  metaphysic  which  Schopenhauer  doubtingly 
tenders  as  a  reason  for  the  presence  of  religion  in  the 
world,  and  ancestral  worship  to  satisfy  that  more  rational 
craving  for  guidance  and  consolation  in  the  hard  ways  of 
that  world,  the  vast  Chinese  nation  has  managed  to  get 
along  with  no  religion,  or  next  to  none,  very  comfort- 
ably, and  to  live  and  let  one  another  live  and  multiply, 
although  having  three  very  disputable  creeds  to  quarrel 
about,  in  a  peaceable,  unchristian  way,  until  they  count 
four  hundred  and  fifty  millions,  and  this  during  those 
very  centuries  in  which  European  nations  were  thinning 


68  CHINESE   SOULS. 

themselves  out  by  fire  and  sword,  for  the  love  of  God 
and  the  territory  of  their  neighbors,  so  effectively  that 
in  the  great  and  fertile  area  of  France  the  survivors  as 
late  as  only  a  century  or  two  ago,  counted  but  ten 
millions.  And  a  scanty  population  included  within  the 
straggling  bounds  of  a  few  disjointed  principalities  of 
two  thousand  years  ago  have  unified  and  civilized  them- 
selves and  become  the  mightiest  nation  of  the  world, 
enjoying,  all  things  considered,  and  as  human  affairs 
have  gone  since  the  golden  age,  a  security,  peace,  order 
and  general  intelligence  that  is  unparalleled.  I  say  the 
mightiest  nation,  for  in  the  resources  of  might  China  is 
so.  General  Sir  Garnet  Wolseley  asserts  that  her  people 
have  all  the  military  virtues,  and  could,  if  they  would, 
sweep  Asia  clear  of  their  annoyers  and  disturbers.  And 
this  American  nation  of  ours  has  no  adequate  guarantee 
for  the  safety,  of  the  western  part  of  her  at  least,  from 
the  righteous  anger  of  a  near  neighbor  so  endowed  with 
latent  warlike  energy  but  the  fact  that  that  neighbor 
has  also  the  virtue  of  loving  peace.  Now,  this  result 
Williams  admits  has  been  mainly  obtained  by  the  hab- 
itual practice  in  every  family  in  China  of  what  is  nothing 
more,  though  somewhat  less,  than  "American  Spirit- 
ualism;" which,  well  considered,  must  bring  up  the 
question:  How  will  so  efhcient  a  cause  as  this  has 
proved  itself  to  be  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  globe 
affect  the  country  of  its  latest  revival  and  those  others 
in  which  it  is  so  rapidly  spreading? 


CHAPTER   X. 

JAPANESE    SOULS. 

Japanese  civilization,  they  now  say,  is  hardly  fifteen 
centuries  old,  yet  in  that  time  Japanese  religion,  originally 
simple  ancestor  worship,  underlaid,  as  of  course,  by  the 
usual  gross  superstitions  of  earlier  origin  even  than  it, 
which  all  savages  are  addicted  to,  has  been  successively 
overlaid  and  the  life  almost  crushed  out  of  it,  by  Mikado- 
ism,  Buddhism  and  Confuciatiism.  First  Mikadoism  made 
it  a  State  Church  in  the  interest  of  the  conquering  tribe 
that  first  enforced  unity  upon  the  islanders,  enthroning  its 
chief,  as  at  once  emperor  of  all  the  earth  and  god  of  all  the 
heavens.  Later  came  over  from  the  Continent  the  finer 
contrived  system  of  Buddha,  and  superseded  in  the  State 
establishment  the  ancestor-cult  element,  and,  later  still, 
came  Confucianism.  Nevertheless,  to  the  last  that  ele- 
ment has  held  its  own  in  the  belief  of  the  people,  and 
even  modified  the  intruding  faiths,  or,  rather,  exchanged 
modifications  with  them.  Each  one  of  these  imported 
influences  has  done  its  work  in  adding  to  and  taking 
from  the  aboriginal  worship,  and  have  so  deformed, 
disguised  and  covered  it  up,  that  those  learned  men 
who,  in  the  last  two  centuries,  have  made  researches  into 
the  original  of  it,  have  had  tasks  akin  to  those  of  the  ex- 
cavators in  Egypt  and  Chaldea.  At  present,  however, 
in  the  light  of  those  researches,  and  of  what  is  known  of 
ancestor  worship  in  other  countries,  it  is  not  difficult  to 
identify  it  with  that  worship,  or  to  see  that  from  its  first 
absorption  in  Mikadoism  until  now  it  has  been,  despite 
Mikadoism,  Buddhism  and  Confucianism,  the  efficient 
religious  power  working    to  mould    the    civilization  of 


70  JAPANESE    SOULS. 

Japan,  and  the  character  of  its  people.  That  originally 
it  was  very  different  from  the  Shinto  that  was  formed 
upon  it,  later  is  said  to  have  been  proved  by  high  an- 
tiquarian authority,  and  yet  Shinto  has  always  carried 
in  its  bowels  the  original  ancestor  worship,  and,  like 
other  systems,  been  sustained  by  it,  or,  rather,  both 
have  been  kept  alive  by  certain  manifestations  of  the 
occult  side  of  human  nature,  whose  universality  and 
persistency  show  them  to  constitute  a  scientific  basis 
capable  to  hold  up  as  superstructure  all  the  religions  of 
the  world,  which  have  never  been  other  than  interpreta- 
tions, or  misinterpretations  of  those  manifestations.  So 
in  Shinto  ancestor  worship  proper  must  be  searched  for. 
And  for  aid  in  doing  so,  here  are  some  of  the  points  of 
agreement  of  Japanese  ancestor  worship  and  ancestor 
worship  in  general. 

(i.)  Gods.  Aside  from  the  Mikado,  shintoism  im- 
poses on  its  votaries  no  divinities  other  than  their  own 
forefathers,  to  whom  they  love,  as  always  they  have  loved, 
to  address  unuttered  invocations,  such  as  this:  "Spirits 
august  of  our  far-off  ancestors,  ye  forefathers  of  the  gen- 
erations, and  of  our  families  and  of  our  kindred,  unto 
you,  the  founders  of  our  homes,  we  this  day  utter  the 
gladness  of  our  thanks."  In  pure  ancestor  worship  all 
the  dead  are  gods,  and  there  is  no  god  above  them.  And 
these  gods  are  spirits  and  inhabit  a  spiritual  world,  while 
at  the  same  time  caring  for  dwellers  in  this  natural  one. 
Hirata,  a  commentator  quoted  by  Hearn,  says:  "The 
spirits  of  the  dead  continue  to  exist  in  the  unseen  world 
which  is  everywhere  about  us,  and  they  all  become  gods, 
of  varying  character  and  degrees  of  influence.  Some 
reside  in  temples  built  in  their  honor;  others  hover  near 
their  tombs,  and  they  continue  to  render  service  to  their 
prince,  parents,  wives  and  children  as  when  in  the  body. 
.   .  .   Every  human  action  is  the  work  of  a  god." 

(2.)    The  way  of  the  gods.    This  is  the  literal  meaning  of 


JAPANESE    SOULS.  71 

the  Japanese  term  Kami  no  Michi  and  of  the  Chinese 
word  Shinto,  the  last  syllable  of  which  means  way,  as  does 
Tao,  the  name  of  the  old  Chinese  religion.  The  Hindus, 
too,  have  their  way  of  the  gods,  leading,  as  the  Japanese 
one  does,  to  a  "land  of  the  gods."  In  both  cases  it 
applies  to  ancestor  worship  and  to  the  early  stages  of  it, 
before,  as  happened  in  Hindustan,  it  was  over-laid  by 
Hinduism  proper  with  its  higher  development  of  theism, 
or,  as  in  other  countries,  by  Buddhism.  Thus  the  abo- 
riginal faith  is  found  to  have  given  Shinto  the  very  name 
it  bears. 

(3.)  The  household  element  essential  to  ancestor  worship 
shows  plainly,  too,  in  the  Shinto.  Hearn  says:  "And 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  early  forms  of  Shinto 
public  worship  may  have  been  evolved  out  of  a  yet  older 
family  worship.  .  .  ,  Indeed  the  word  ujgami,  now  used 
to  signify  a  Shinto  parish  temple,  and  also  its  deity, 
means /a;/z//y  God.  .  .  .  And  to  the  student  of  Japanese 
life  by  far  the  most  interesting  aspect  of  Shinto  is  offered 
in  this  home  worship."  For  that  worship  every  dwelling 
has  a  room  set  apart  called  the  spirit  chamber,  with  a 
shelf  or  shrine  called  "the  shelf  of  the  August  Spirits,'* 
on  which  rest  tablets  each  of  which  bears  the  name  of  a 
departed  member  of  the  family,  with  the  sole  addition 
of  the  word  '■^  Mitama"  (spirit).  This  chamber  corre- 
sponds to  the  Chinese  "ancestral  hall," 

(4.)  Se'atice,  sitting.  We  have  seen  that  the  term  Upani- 
shad,  which  the  Hindus  apply  to  their  very  old  Scrip- 
tures, means  ''sitting  near  a  person,"  Now  the  name 
given  to  the  Japanese  medium,  called  in  when  the  family- 
desires  to  consult  its  spirits,  '■'Nakaza^''  means  ^^  seat  in 
the  midst."  No  more  than  the  modern  Spiritualists  in 
their  circles  do  the  worshippers,  if  such  they  can  be 
called,  ever  kneel  to  the  spirits.  Their  requests,  which 
can  hardly  be  called  prayers,  are  preferred  in  a  sitting 
posture;,  which  again  is  a  reminder  that  Pythagoras  said, 
"  You  should  sit  when  you  pray,"     This  omission  of  the 


72  JAPANESE   SOULS. 

abject  devotional  attitudes,  common  in  more  theistic 
stages  of  religion,  is  quite  appropriate  to  a  worship 
which  has  little  or  no  ceremonial,  in  which  the  sacrifice 
is  merely  a  present  of  food,  made  by  children  to  parent, 
and  the  asking  of  like  worldly  favors  in  return,  but 
especially  of  advice  and  guidance  in  the  affairs  of  the 
family,  of  which  all  present,  living  or  dead,  are  equally 
members.  In  fact  in  Japan,  as  in  China,  the  sitting  in 
the  ancestral  chamber  is  very  much  of  a  family  council, 
and  very  little  of  a  devotional  congregation. 

{5.)  Concerning  the  modes  of  commufiication  between 
the  ancestor  and  his  descendants,  we  have  seen  that 
those  adopted  in  China  are  just  like  those  we  are  familiar 
with  in  America.  It  would  be  safe  to  presume  it  is  the 
same  in  Japan,  though  the  authorities  at  hand  mention 
only  what  we  know  here  as  personation,  tratice-speaking 
and  table-moving,  but  these  are  enough  to  identify  the 
two  quasi  religions  as  one  and  the  same,  though  the 
latter  one  is  no  copy  of  the  earlier,  but  an  original 
creation  springing  up  in  our  Western  wilds  as  mysteri- 
ously, and  as  naturally  too,  as  in  those  same  wilds  the 
herb  "  pennyroyal  "  springs  up  wherever  the  primeval 
forest  is  cleared  off,  and  pine  trees  replace  felled  oaks. 

But  however  the  communications  from  the  departed 
come  the  Japanese  like  the  Chinese  believe  and  obey 
them,  and  after  an  experience  begun  in  pre-historic 
times  and  uninterruptedly  continued  until  now,  find 
them  good.  That  they  are  believed,  obeyed  and  found 
good  of  course  does  not  prove  that  they  come  from 
spirits  of  the  dead,  which,  however,  is  the  firm  fixed  be- 
lief of  the  people,  who  avoid  risk  of  being  disenchanted 
in  that  regard  by  observing  the  admonitions  of  Confucius 
against  pushing  their  enquiries  too  far.  The  sage  who 
said:  "  Do  not  ask  me  about  the  next  life  when  I  cannot 
explain  this,"  also  said:  "To  give  one's  self  to  the 
duties  due  to  man,  and  while  respecting  spiritual  beings 
to  keep  aloof  from  them,  may  be  called  wisdom,"  and 


JAPANESE   SOULS.  73 

again:     "  Honor    the   gods   and    keep    them    far   from 
you." 

(6.)  The  Phallicism  found  in  Shinto  belongs  unmis- 
takably to  ancestor  worship,  the  phallus  being  the  most 
obvious  symbol  of  paternity.  It  also  belongs  to  nature 
worship  as  emblematic  of  fire  and  of  the  sun.  But  it 
seems  that  some  Christian  ladies,  going  to  Japan,  looked 
upon  the  emblem  and  were  shocked,  and  to  please  them 
the  Government  in  1872  destroyed  or  hid  away  all  such 
representations,  whether  floating  as  harbor  buoys  or 
throned  in  temple  shrines.  It  is  presumed  the  shocked 
ladies  were  Americans,  for  in  India,  where  Britain  rules, 
there  has  been  no  such  interference  with  the  worship  in 
question,  and  women  of  the  European  Continent  are  even 
less  disposed  than  those  of  Britain  to  get  shocked  by 
innocent  inevitabilities.  That  the  people  peacefully  sub- 
mitted to  the  insult  and  degradation  of  the  emblem  of 
their  forefather  worship  and  of  their  beloved  sun  god- 
dess, shows  that  they  were  very  obedient  subjects  or  had 
a  very  strong  ruler;  in  any  case,  such  a  concession  to 
the  nerves  of  one  people  by  another  was  unparalleled. 
Perhaps  it  would  not  have  been  made  if  the  islanders, 
before  making  it,  had  tested  their  artillery,  as  they  lately 
have  done.  Griffis,  while  rejoicing  in  the  removal,  says: 
"  Modern  taste  has  removed  from  sight  what  were  once 
the  common  people's  symbols  of  the  god  way — that  is,  of 
ancestor  worship.  The  extent  of  the  phallus  cult  and  its 
close  and  even  vital  connection  with  the  god  way,  and 
the  general  and  innocent  use  of  the  now  prohibited 
emblems  tax  severely  the  credulity  of  the  Occidental 
reader,"  and  adds:  "In  none  of  the  instances  in  which 
I  have  been  eye-witness  of  the  cult,  of  the  person  officiat- 
ing or  of  the  emblem,  have  I  had  any  reason  to  doubt 
the  sincerity  of  the  worshipper.  I  have  never  had  reason 
to  look  upon  the  implements  or  the  system  as  anything 
else  than  the  endeavor  of  man  to  solve  the  mystery  of 
Being  and  Power." 


74  JAPANESE    SOULS. 

Truth  is  worth  some  sacrifice.  The  veil  of  modesty  is 
but  a  thick  or  thin  lie,  whatever  may  be  the  demerits  of 
the  thing  it  hides.  Too  much  propriety  has  its  incon- 
veniences. There  is  a  certain  comfort  in  calling  things 
by  their  right  names,  and  facing  bravely  nature  and 
truth.  This  the  Japanese  do,  and  ever  have  done  in  all 
the  movements  of  life,  and  still  manage  to  be  a  gentle, 
mild-mannered,  pleasant  and  really  refined  people.  And 
it  would  have  been  more  creditable  to  the  good  sense  of 
the  aforesaid  women  to  have  abstained  from  looking  at 
or  going  to  see  what  they  have  been  taught  it  was  naughty 
to  look  at — in  company  with  men — but  the  Japanese  had 
not — than  to  have  asked  a  forty-million  nation  to  change 
its  time-honored  customs  in  respect  to  things  sacred  to 
them.  In  America,  prudery  is  a  nuisance  such  as  it  is 
in  no  other  country,  and  sometimes  amounts,  when  it 
takes  the  form  of  law,  to  tyranny  outright.  To  con- 
sistently complete  the  work  so  notably  begun  in  Japan, 
our  good  women  should  carry  their  crusade  over  the 
entire  globe,  and  labor  for  the  abolition  of  every  church- 
spire,  obelisk,  pyramid  and  crucifix  that  stands ;  for  all  of 
these,  besides  being  emblems  of  the  sacred  fire  and  sun 
god  of  Paganism,  have  all  other  phallic  significance. 
Nor  would  the  good  work  be  complete  until  the  round 
towers  of  Ireland  had  been  razed  to  the  earth  and  the 
columns  of  Stonehenge  broken  up  to  macadamize  the 
roads.  Something  like  a  parallel  to  this  interference 
with  Japanese  religious  sentiment  would  be  a  demand 
upon  Austria,  for  instance,  to  abolish  the  numerous 
effigies  that  border  the  roads  of  that  country,  represent- 
ing in  life-size  and  colors  the  death  of  Jesus  by  torture, 
the  sight  of  which  hurts  not  only  the  religious  precon- 
ceptions of  Protestant  travellers,  but  the  human  feelings 
of  all  sympathetic  persons  who  pass  by,  and  is  intended 
to  do  so. 

(7.)  No  morality.  The  ancestor  worship  that  lies  en- 
veloped in  Shinto  had  no  moral  law  except  what  is  writ- 


JAPANESE   SOULS.  75 

ten  on  the  heart  of  man,  and  so  Shinto  has  none.  Says 
Griffis :  "  There  are  no  codes  of  morals  inculcated  in  the 
god  way,  for  even  its  modern  revivalists  and  exponents 
consider  that  morals  are  the  invention  of  wicked  people 
like  the  Chinese";  also  that,  "utterly  scouting  the  idea 
that  formulated  ethics  were  necessary  for  these  pure- 
minded  people,  the  modern  revivalists  of  Shinto  teach 
that  all  that  is  '  of  faith  '  now  is  to  revere  the  gods,  keep 
the  heart  pure,  and  follow  its  dictates."  Lowell,  writing 
on  the  same  subject,  says:  "  The  gods  never  so  much  as 
laid  down  a  moral  code,  '  Obey  the  Mikado  '  and  other- 
wise 'follow  your  own  heart'  is  the  sum  of  their  com- 
mands; as  parental  injunctions  as  could  very  well  be 
framed."  And  a  famous  expounder  of  Shinto,  Motowori, 
quoted  by  Hearn,  writes:  "All  the  moral  ideas  which  a 
man  requires  are  implanted  in  his  bosom  by  the  gods,  and 
are  of  the  same  nature  with  those  instincts  which  impel 
him  to  eat  when  he  is  hungry  or  to  drink  when  he  is 
thirsty.  .  .  .  To  have  learned  that  there  is  no  way  (in 
the  sense  of  moral  path)  to  be  learned  and  practiced  is 
really  to  have  learned  the  way  of  the  gods."  Hirata,  before 
mentioned,  says:  "  If  you  desire  to  practice  true  virtue, 
learn  to  stand  in  awe  of  the  Unseen,  and  that  will  prevent 
you  from  doing  wrong.  Make  a  vow  to  the  gods  who  rule 
over  the  unseen  and  cultivate  the  conscience  {Magokoro) 
implanted  in  you,  and  then  you  will  never  wander  from 
the  way."  Also,  "  Devotion  to  the  memory  of  ancestors 
is  the  mainspring  of  all  virtues.  No  one  who  discharges 
his  duty  to  them  will  ever  be  disrespectful  to  the  gods  or 
to  his  living  parents.  Such  a  man  will  be  faithful  to  his 
prince,  loyal  to  his  friends,  and  kind  and  gentle  with  his 
wife  and  children."  Finally,  Mr.  Nose  Ei,  quoted  by  Sir 
Edwin  Arnold,  says  of  the  followers  of  Shintoism:  *'  Their 
ethical  diction  is  not  derived  from  religious  writings"; 
and  the  instances  he  cites  to  show  this,  in  Sir  Edwin's 
opinion,  "go  far  to  prove  that  the  Japanese  really  did 
invent  an  elaborate  morality  for  themselves,"  based  on 


76  JAPANESE   SOULS. 

"  the  eternal  fitness  of  things "  and  "that  revelations  are 
not  necessary  to  teach  men  to  love  the  right  and  hate  the 
wrong." 

But  the  "wicked  Chinese,"  whom  the  Shintoists  think 
may  need  the  moral  regulation  which  themselves  do  not, 
in  the  the  olden  time,  before  Confucius  came  to  elaborate 
an  ethical  code  for  them,  and  before  Buddhism  had  ap- 
peared to  impair  the  original  faith,  held  very  much  the 
same  notions  as  these  Japanese  do.  Lao  Tsee,  who  lived 
some  six  hundred  years  before  Christ,  and  who  wrote  the 
only  authoritative  statement  of  that  faith  which  remains, 
namely,  the  "  Tao-te-king,"  or  the  "  Book  of  the  way  and 
of  virtue,"  expressed  much  contempt  for  the  ethical  dis- 
quisitions of  his  junior  contemporary  Confucius,  and  in- 
sisted on  the  ancient  principle  that  "  the  heart  of  mail  is 
naturally  good""  and  needs  no  moral  instruction,  as  much 
as  the  Shintoists  do,  and  even  now  the  first  lesson  the 
Chinese  child  receives  the  first  day  he  goes  to  school  is 
still  that  maxim,  "  the  heart  of  man  is  naturally  good," 
to  which  every  human  heart  must  give  an  approving  throb, 
notwithstanding  Christianity  has  solemnly  amended  it  by 
striking  out  "good"  and  inserting  "evil."  Probably 
old  Robert  Owen,  who  during  thirty  years  educated  all 
the  children  of  a  town  of  three  thousand  people  and  said 
htnever  had  a  bad  childin  his  school,  taughtthem  the  Chinese 
maxim  and  not  the  Scotch.  And  if  Japanese  children  are, 
as  travellers  report,  milder,  gentler  and  better  than  ours, 
may  it  not  in  part  be  due  to  their  being  early  imbued  with 
this  heathenish  and  unchristian  gospel  of  goodness? 

Older,  simpler,  and  if  you  please  lower  than  intrusive 
Buddhism  and  Confucianism  though  it  be,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  ancestor  worship,  enveloped  in  Shinto,  has 
ever  been  the  working  religion  of  Japan,  as  it  has  been 
of  the  Hindus,  Chinese  and  other  peoples.  Its  value  as 
tested  by  results  need  not  be  much  dwelt  on  here,  for  all 
the  world  now  is  giving  attention  to  them  with  informa- 
tion in  aid  of  judgment  well  spread  before  all,  which  each 


JAPANESE   SOULS.  77 

will  scan  from  his  own  point  of  view.  A  good  many  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that,  all  things  considered — our 
murdering  set  off  against  their  suicides,  our  foeticide  set 
off  against  their  infanticide,  and  our  immoral  and  unlaw- 
ful unchastity  against  their  lawful  moral  and  customary 
departures  from  our  standards  in  that  respect — they  are 
better  than  we,  and  furthermore,  that  in  regulating  sex- 
ual relations,  not  merely  within  the  pale  of  marriage  but 
without  it,  in  the  interest  of  order,  health,  decency  and 
humanity,  instead  of  disregarding  those  interests  in  futile 
and  mischievous  endeavors  to  suppress  the  irrepressible, 
and  prosecuting  nature  unto  outlawry,  they  are  also  wiser 
than  we. 

Ancestor  worship  has  proved  itself  to  be  the  most  per- 
sistent of  religions,  coming  earliest,  staying  longest,  and 
existing  in  full  vigor  to-day;  and  if  the  Shinto  is  per- 
sistent it  is  more  reasonable  to  attribute  its  persistence 
to  the  old  faith  that  lies  underneath  it  than  to  either  the 
Mikadoism,  Buddhism  or  Confucianism  that  lie  atop  of 
it.  Further  concerning  Shintoism,  Mr.  Lowell,  in  his 
"  Unfamiliar  Japan,''  says: 

"Buddhism,  changing  form  or  slowly  decaying  through 
the  centuries,  might  seem  doomed  to  pass  away  at  last 
from  this  Japan,  to  which  it  came  as  an  alien  faith;  but 
Shinto,  unchanging  and  vitally  unchanged,  still  remains 
all-dominant  in  the  land  of  its  birth,  and  only  seems  to 
gain  power  and  dignity  with  time.  Buddhism  has  a  vo- 
luminous theology,  a  profound  philosophy,  a  literature 
vast  as  the  sea.  Shinto  has  no  philosophy,  no  code  of 
ethics,  no  metaphysics;  and  yet,  by  its  very  immateri- 
ality, it  can  resist  the  invasion  of  Occidental  religious 
thought  as  no  other  Oriental  faith  can.  Shinto  extends 
a  welcome  to  Western  science,  but  remains  the  irre- 
sistible opponent  of  Western  religion;  and  the  foreign 
zealots  who  would  strive  against  it  are  astonished  to  find 
the  power  that  foils  their  uttermost  efforts  indefinable  as 
magnetism  and  invulnerable  as  air.     Indeed  the  best  of 


78  JAPANESE    SOULS. 

our  scholars  have  never  been  able  to  tell  us  what  Shinto 
is.  To  some  it  seems  to  be  merely  ancestor  worship,  to 
others  ancestor  worship  combined  with  nature  worship; 
to  others  again  it  seems  to  be  no  religion  at  all;  to  the 
missionary  of  the  more  ignorant  class  it  is  the  worst  form 
of  heathenism.  Doubtless  the  difficulty  of  explaining 
Shinto  has  been  due  simply  to  the  fact  that  the  Sinolo- 
gists have  sought  for  the  source  of  it  in  books:  in  the 
Kojiki  and  the  Nihofigi,  which  are  its  histories;  in  the 
Norito,  which  are  its  prayers;  in  the  commentaries  of 
Motowori  and  Hirata,  who  were  its  greatest  scholars. 
But  the  reality  of  Shinto  lives  not  in  books,  nor  in  rites, 
nor  in  commandments,  but  in  the  national  heart,  of  which 
it  is  the  highest  emotional  religious  expression,  immortal 
and  ever  young.  Far  underlying  all  the  surface  cross  of 
quaint  superstitions  and  artless  myths  and  fantastic  magic 
there  thrills  a  mighty  spiritual  force,  the  whole  soul  of  a 
race  with  all  its  impulses  and  powers  and  intuitions.  He 
who  would  know  what  Shinto  is  must  learn  to  know  that 
mysterious  soul  in  which  the  sense  of  beauty  and  the 
power  of  art  and  the  fire  of  heroism  and  the  magnetism 
of  loyalty  and  the  emotion  of  faith,  have  become  inherent, 
immanent,  unconscious,  instinctive." 

"Trusting  to  know  something  of  that  Oriental  soul  in 
whose  joyous  love  of  nature  and  of  life  even  the  unlearned 
may  discern  a  strange  likeness  to  the  soul  of  the  old 
Greek  race,  I  trust  also  that  I  may  presume  some  day  to 
speak  of  the  great  living  power  of  that  faith  now  called 
the  Shinto,  but  more  anciently  Kami-no-michi,  or  the 
way  of  the  gods." 

Ancestor  worship  holds  men  to  right  conduct  not 
merely  through  a  fixed  belief  that  every  thought,  feeling 
and  act  of  the  living  is  known  to  those  of  the  dead  whom 
when  in  life  they  most  loved  and  revered  and  from  whom 
was  received  the  very  maxims  of  goodness  they  are  ex- 
pected to  keep,  but  also  through  an  equally  fixed  belief 
that  the  living  parents  to  whom  at  present  they  owe  love 


JAPANESE    SOULS.  79 

and  duty  are  in  future  to  be  not  merely  their  parents,  but 
their  gods. 

And  here  in  passing,  may  it  not  be  supposed  that  the 
notion  common  to  all  religions,  that  the  powers  that  are 
on  high  punish  sin  committed  here  below,  had  its  origin 
in  this  belief  that  the  present  parent  is  the  future  god, 
since  that  is  just  what  parents  are  used  to  do.  Weigh  in 
any  just  balance  against  such  an  influence  as  this  the  fear 
of  even  the  most  modified  form  of  the  Bible  hell  which 
Christian  orthodoxy  permits  of,  or  which  Christian  heter- 
odoxy has  of  late  contrived  to  meet  the  popular  demand 
for  a  reasonable  and  credible  retribution  for  sin,  and 
which  will  kick  the  beam? 

Shinto,  says  Lowell:  "  Signifies  character  in  the  higher 
sense — courage,  courtesy,  honor,  and,  above  all  things, 
loyalty.  The  spirit  of  Shinto  is  the  spirit  of  filial  piety, 
the  zest  of  duty,  the  readiness  to  surrender  life  for  a 
principle  without  a  thought  of  wherefore.  It  is  the 
docility  of  the  child;  it  is  the  sweetness  of  the  Japanese 
woman." 


CHAPTER   XI. 

THE    POSSIBILITY    OF    A    SPIRITUAL    WORLD    CONSIDERED. 

Although  ghosts  may  well  have  induced  a  belief  in  a 
world  of  spirits,  they  go  little  or  no  ways  towards  prov- 
ing it.  They  are  in  their  nature  representations  and  not 
entities,  nor  yet  reflections,  shadows,  mirages  of  such. 
The  supposed  spirit  of  the  modern  Spiritualists  is  a  being 
not  only  superior  to,  but  more  real  and  substantial  than 
any  natural  man,  and  dwells  in  a  habitat  equally  so 
as  compared  with  the  natural  world,  and  the  last  per- 
sons to  admit  that  its  inhabitants  were  common  ghosts 
would  be  those  Spiritualists.  The  immortality  they  look 
for  is  to  be  enjoyed  by  glorified  personalities  in  a  radiant 
environment  that  is  not  ghostly  at  all.  Accordingly 
these,  when  they  would  infer  the  substantial  spirit  from 
the  thin  and  vanishing  shade,  resort  to  the  supposition 
that  the  spirit  disguises  itself  in  a  form,  and  with  the 
costume  and  other  accessories  needed  to  recall  to  the 
beholder  the  living  man  of  an  earlier  date. 

How  a  real  '■'■  rdvenant''  (returner)  from  a  world  of 
spirits,  if  there  be  such,  would  appear  no  one  can  tell, 
since  it  must  be  something  beyond  experience  or  guess, 
but  common  sense  says  it  could  not  appear  as  a  ghost  if 
it  came  in  proper  person.  Some  few  of  the  opposite 
school,  namely  the  materialists,  whom  the  overwhelming 
evidence  now  within  easy  reach  of  all  has  convinced  that 
apparitions  do  come,  have  put  forward  another  suppo- 
sition, which  is  that  they  are  inanimate  projections, 
reflections,  shadows,  mirages  of  living  men  or  the  bodies 
of  dead  ones.  But  this  supposition  will  not  bear  exam- 
ination.    A  sick  man  lies  on  his  bed,  or  his  corpse  in  its 


A    SPIRITUAL    WORLD    CONSIDERED.  81 

coffin,  or,  later  on,  in  its  grave,  where  decomposition  is 
fast  distorting  it  out  of  all  likeness  to  anything  living, 
while  miles  away  an  image  that  perfectly  reproduces  the 
same  man,  not  in  night  gown  or  shroud,  but  clad,  shod 
and  coiffed  as  he  was  before  he  fell  sick,  goes  noiselessly 
along  the  way.  This  cannot  be  a  projection,  reflection, 
shadow  or  mirage  of  anything  whatever,  for  nothing  like 
it  anywhere  exists  above  ground  or  below.  Such  appear- 
ances can  only  emanate  from  something  exactly  the  same 
to  the  eye  that  is  at  the  very  time  in  question  actually  in 
being.  There  can  be  no  shadow  cast  by  a  non-extant 
substance.  If  living  or  dead  bodies  can  project  images 
of  themselves  these  must  be  simply  their  likenesses  as 
they  actually  are.  It  is  true  that  nowadays  the  talking 
ghost  usually  claims  to  be  a  spirit  and  to  come  from  a 
world  of  spirits;  but  his  word  is  worth  no  more  than  that 
of  the  shade  of  ancient  times  who  proclaimed  himself  a 
god. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  by  any  one  who  has  read  much 
of  history  that  in  all  times  men  have  objectively  and 
subjectively,  mentally  in  dreams  and  visions,  and  actu- 
ally, separately  and  in  groups  and  crowds,  been  visited 
by  apparitions  purporting  to  be  of  supernatural  beings 
such  as  they  were  accustomed  to  believe  in  as  gods.  In 
fact,  it  is  doubtful  if  any  god  would  have  remained  long 
in  popular  belief  after  ceasing  to  present  himself  in  some 
way  to  the  inner  or  outer  senses.  And  if  a  ghost  proves 
a  world  of  spirits,  then  is  every  god  and  goddess  proved 
whose  semblance  ever  came  to  earth.  Priestly  teachings 
have  crowded  heaven  up  to  its  zenith  and  earth  down 
to  its  core  with  divinities  of  every  degree,  with  angels 
and  devils,  saints  and  demons,  while  the  imaginations  of 
the  people  themselves  have  filled  earth,  air,  fire  and 
water,  with  sylphs,  salamanders,  undines  and  gnomes, 
all  of  whom  have  had  the  habit  of  appearing  unto  men. 
When  Christianity  came  it  found  every  spring  in  Greece 
in  the  keeping  of  a  lesser  deity,  and  as  these  insisted  on 


S2  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF 

showing  themselves  as  usual  notwithstanding  the  change 
in  the  ecclesiastical  administration  the  new  Church  cun- 
ningly adopted  and  made  saints  of  them,  while  the  vulgar, 
being  quite  sure  of  their  facts,  let  them  be  christened 
with  new  names  and  went  on  loving  and  believing  in 
them  as  before.  So  the  proof  afforded  by  a  spectre's 
resemblance  to  a  dead  person  as  well  as  that  afforded  by 
its  declarations  must  fail  because  they  prove  too  much. 
Another  supposition  which  takes  the  ghosts  to  be  real 
things  and  yet  not  spirits  of  the  dead  is  put  forward  by 
some  Hinduists,  which  is  that  when  a  dying  mortal  casts 
his  body  into  the  grave  he  also  casts  upon  the  air  a  vapor- 
ous "astral"  corpse,  which  decays  as  the  other  does 
and  in  the  same  measure,  and  that  this  "shell"  falling 
into  the  hands  of  mischievous  beings  of  one  kind  or 
other  is  exhibited  as  the  ghost.  And  to  account  for  the 
clothing  it  wears  the  supposition  is  further  made  that 
the  coats,  vests  and  trousers,  hats,  shirts  and  shoes  of 
the  departed  have  all  of  them  astral  counterparts  which 
are  used  to  dress  up  the  phantom  in  recognizable  shape. 
But  now  let  the  thing  thus  dressed  up  be  supposed  to 
show  itself  two  or  three  years  after  the  death,  and  when 
the  thing  in  the  grave  is  looking  its  worst,  and  the  astral 
drifting  on  the  air  looking  just  like  it,  as  it  must  if,  as 
said  above,  the  two  decay  together,  there  would  be  pre- 
sented to  view  something  beyond  measure  more  horrible 
than  any  ghost  story  tells  of  or  mortal  nerves  could 
bear.  Or  if  perchance  one  time  in  a  thousand  a  corpse 
is  shown,  to  indicate  a  death,  it  is  a  seemly  one,  and, 
serving  such  a  purpose,  can  be  accounted  for  on  the 
theory  of  telegraphic  representation,  without  need  of 
resorting  to  any  other.  Furthermore,  if  the  astral  body 
decays  in  the  same  measure  as  the  other  does,  must  not 
the  astral  clothes  rot  and  wear  out  in  the  same  measure 
as  their  counterparts  do,  and  if  so  would  not  the  half- 
decayed  representative  of  the  man  two  or  three  years 
dead  have  to  cover  its  deficiencies  with  astral  rags  ?  And 


A    SPIRITUAL    WORLD    CONSIDERED.  83 

has  such  an  object  ever  been  shown,  to  affright  the 
world  ? 

Gods  and  ghosts  are  of  the  same  thin,  spectral  nature; 
a  bullet  goes  through  the  ghost  without  effect,  and  the 
ancients  detected  a  god  when  he  walked  the  earth  by 
his  casting  no  shadow.  Spectres  do  not  tarry  long. 
Having,  in  a  business-like,  straightforward  way  deliv- 
ered their  messages,  which  are  usually  important,  as 
for  instance,  when  Lord  Lovatt's  mounted  ghost  came 
galloping  along  the  road  to  overtake  a  surviving  friend 
and  tell  him  how  a  paper  could  be  found  that  would 
enable  his  widow  to  defeat  an  unjust  claim  then  in  suit 
against  his  estate,  they  quickly  depart.  Their  interviews 
usually  last  but  a  few  minutes,  sometimes  only  a  few 
seconds.  Often  their  mission  seems  to  be  fulfilled  by 
merely  showing  themselves.  And  in  general  what  they 
communicate  when  they  come  of  their  own  motion  and 
not  upon  invocation,  is  of  intelligible  import,  relates  to 
the  living  and  the  affairs  of  this  life,  is  true  in  statement 
and  benevolent  in  intent.  All  which  characterizes  them 
as  messengers,  that  is,  angels,  and  as  coming  because 
some  good  overruling  power  sends  them.  Their  fleeting 
nature  of  itself  marks  them  as  shows,  exhibits,  signals, 
and  not  active  beings.  Frequent  failure  to  hold  them- 
selves together  long  enough  to  do  their  errands,  or  to 
speak  out  what  they  seem  to  have  to  say,  or  complete 
what  they  begin  to  tell,  all  go  to  indicate  that  they  are 
produced  with  effort,  and  effort  that  cannot  long  be  kept 
up. 

Whatever  may  be  the  nature  of  the  intelligences  that 
lie  back  of  such  apparitions,  the  apparitions  do  not  serve 
to  reveal,  but  to  conceal  it.  However  real  they  may  be 
as  entities,  we  cannot  know  it.  It  is  still  a  phantasm 
that  is  exhibited,  whose  nature  and  origin  remain  dis- 
guised as  with  mask  and  domino.  To  prove  what  they  are 
they  must  show  themselves  as  they  are.  By  ghosts,  only 
ghosts  are  proved.     Religions  and  philosophies  are  not 


84  A    SPIRITUAL    WORLD    CONSIDERED. 

devised  by  spectres  of  gods  or  men.  Such  have  never 
"gone  about  doing  good."  They  are  not  doers  in  any 
sense.  At  their  largest,  those  charged  with  a  meaning, 
they  are  but  a  branch  of  picture  language,  that  system 
of  symbolic  showing  that  was  in  use  before  words  were 
written  or  spoken,  that  did  not  need  to  wait  the  coming 
of  a  Cadmus  to  teach  it,  and  without  being  learned  is 
universally  understood. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE    POSSIBILITY     OF     A     SPIRITUAL     WORLD     FURTHER 
CONSIDERED. 

Swedenborg' s  Statement. 

Naturally  the  belief  in  a  spiritual  world  has  taken 
different  forms  among  different  peoples.  So  far  as  con- 
cerns the  cosmogony  and  anthropology  of  it,  that  which 
was  formulated  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  by 
Emanuel  Swedenborg,  when  he  constructed  his  relig- 
ious system  known  as  the  New  Church,  claiming  to  be 
guided  in  doing  so  by  direct  revelation  made  to  him  by 
Jesus  in  heaven,  is  the  one  which  modern  Spiritualists 
generally  accept,  though  as  respects  religion  Spiritualists 
and  Swedenborgians  cannot  be  classed  together. 

The  work  of  constructing  that  world  seems  to  have 
been  neglected  by  the  priests,  and  by  the  prophets  as 
well,  and  down  to  Swedenborg's  time  left  to  the  poets. 
The  classic  hades y^2L^  a  creation  of  Homer;  the  Christian 
heaven,  hell  and  purgatory  were  imagined  by  Dante, 
and  the  modification  of  them  to  suit  Puritan  tastes  by 
Milton;  and  these  are  by  no  means  all  who  have  lent 
their  art  and  inspiration  to  that  kind  of  construction. 
But  no  such  spiritual  world  as  that  of  Swedenborg  seems 
to  have  been  conceived  by  any  of  the  poets.  To  put  it 
into  shape  presentable  to  the  minds  of  the  eighteenth 
and  nineteenth  centuries  an  imagination  like  his  was 
needed,  high-soaring,  wide-grasping,  multifarious  and 
untiring,  united  with  what  those  others  could  not  pre- 
tend to,  scientific  and  logical  acumen.  In  a  remnant  of 
one  lifetime  he  completed  a  system  which  all  who  have 
the  energy  to  read  it  in  its  voluminous  details  must  won- 
der at.     Through  more  than  sixty  volumes  (printed  and 


86  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

unprinted)  he  labored  to  buttress  its  weak  points  and 
gloss  it  with  plausibility;  and  if  the  theory  of  a  spiritual 
world  such  as  he  has  left  cannot  bear  examination  none 
can.  No  suspicion  of  imposture,  or  monomania,  can  arise 
in  the  mind  of  one  who  fairly  reads  his  writings.  As  a 
wise,  honest  and  sane  man  it  was  that  he  claimed  to  have 
talked  face  to  face  under  the  very  dome  of  heaven  with 
the  Lord  and  Ruler  of  the  whole  universe  even  to  its 
remotest  star,  who  was  none  other  than  our  own  Jesus 
of  Nazareth ;  and  he  had  as  much  right  to  do  so  as  Moses 
had  to  say  he  talked  with  Jehovah  in  the  burning  bush, 
or  Mahomet  that  Gabriel  came  to  him  in  the  cave.  Nor 
were  signs  and  wonders  wanting  to  attest  the  authen- 
ticity of  his  commission,  such  as  his  father,  the  good 
Bishop  Swedborg,  by  authority  of  the  whole  Christian 
Church,  Catholic  and  Lutheran,  had  taught  him  "im- 
ported verity."  Though  he  was  far  from  obtrusive  of 
his  miraculous  gifts,  and  relied  largely  on  logic  and  the 
authority  of  the  Bible  to  prove  his  teachings,  usually  in 
fact  supplementing  his  revelations  with  them. 

The  spiritual  world  of  Swedenborg  was  as  natural  as 
our  own,  in  every  proper  sense,  though  he  distinguished 
them  from  each  other  as  natural  and  spiritual.  It  was 
in  time  and  space,  and  perceivable  by  senses;  therefore 
phenomenal,  not  transcendent.  He  tells  us  that  all  go 
immediately  after  dying  into  the  "world  of  spirits,"  a 
department  of  the  spiritual  world,  where  "some  remain 
for  only  several  weeks";  "  some  for  several  years,  but 
not  more  than  thirty  "  (Heaven  and  Hell,  S.  426),  and 
that  "things  have  succession  and  progression  in  heaven 
as  in  this  world,"  though  instead  of  ideas  of  time  such  as 
we  have  the  angels  have  only  ideas  of  state.  "  To  them 
all  is  state  and  change  of  state."  And  it  is  the  same  as 
to  ideas  of  space.  The  calling  it  state  does  not  prevent 
It  from  being  space  as  we  conceive  it,  however,  for  after 
saying  that  into  his  heaven  come  all  those  fit  for  it  who 
have  lived  on  any  of  the  myriads  of  earths  that  fill  the 


SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.        87 

universe,  all  of  whom  are  peopled  as  our  own  is,  he  adds, 
as  if  the  question  arose  in  his  mind:  how  all  these  could 
be  lodged.  "  It  has  been  given  me  to  see  the  extent  of 
the  heaven  which  is  inhabited  and  also  of  what  is  not  in- 
habited;  and  I  saw  the  extent  of  heaven  not  inhabited 
was  so  great  that  it  could  not  be  filled  to  eternity,  even 
if  many  myriads  of  earths  were  given  and  as  great  a  mul- 
titude of  men  in  each  as  there  are  in  ours."  {Ibid^  S. 
419.) 

Another  question  which  will  occur  to  the  reader  seems 
not  to  have  occurred  to  him,  which  is:  can  any  part  of 
space,  or  the  whole  of  it  even,  remain  unfilled  for  eter- 
nity when  an  infinite  universe  is  during  all  that  eternity 
breeding  emigrants  for  it  and  pouring  them  in?  Again, 
he  says  of  heaven :  "  Although  in  heaven  there  are  spaces 
as  in  the  world,  still  nothing  is  there  according  to  spaces, 
but  according  to  states."  (Heaven  and  Hell,  S.  198.) 
Hell  also  is  a  place. 

We  are  informed  that  "  in  a  word  the  whole  heaven  and 
the  whole  world  of  spirits  are  as  it  were  excavated  be- 
neath, and  under  them  is  a  continual  hell."  {/btd.,S.  588.) 
This  would  seem  to  make  hell  no  larger  than  heaven, 
though  it  should  be  vastly  more  so,  since  he  tells  us  no 
one  ever  comes  out  of  it,  and  then  plainly  implies  that 
those  who  go  in  there  greatly  outnumber  those  who  enter 
heaven,  by  this  text,  which  in  that  connection  he  quotes: 
"  Wide  is  the  gate  and  broad  is  the  way  that  leads  to  de- 
struction and  many  they  be  who  walk  through  it,  narrow 
the  way  and  straight  is  the  gate  which  leads  to  life  and 
few  there  be  who  find  it,"  following  it  by  this  of  his  own : 
"  That  the  way  is  narrow  which  leads  to  life  is  not  be- 
cause it  is  difficult,  but  because  there  are  few  who  find 
it."  {Ibid.^  534-)  But  the  case  is  somewhat  helped  by 
letting  into  heaven  all  who  are  lucky  enough  to  die  in 
infancy  (blessed  be  measles,  mumps  and  whooping-cough 
therefor!),  otherwise  the  disproportion  between  the  popu- 
lations of  the  two  places  would  be  greater.     And  the  in- 


88  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

habitants  of  the  spiritual  world,  whether  angels,  spirits 
or  devils,  have  senses  just  like  ours.  On  this  point  he 
says:  "From  these  things  it  may  be  evident  that  the 
spirit  of  man  is  equally  in  a  form,  and  that  it  is  in  the 
human  form,  and  that  it  enjoys  sensories  and  senses  as 
well  when  it  is  separated  from  the  body  as  when  it  was 
in  the  body,  and  that  all  of  the  life  of  the  eye,  and  all  of 
the  life  of  the  ear,  in  a  word,  all  of  the  life  of  sense  which 
a  man  has,  is  not  of  his  body,  but  of  his  spirit  in  them, 
and  in  their  minutest  particulars.  Hence  it  is  that  spirits 
as  well  as  men  see,  hear,  and  feel,  but  after  being  loosed 
from  the  body,  not  in  the  natural  world,  but  in  the  spir- 
itual; the  natural  sensation  which  the  spirit  had  when  it 
was  in  the  body,  was  by  the  material  which  was  added  to 
it;  but  still  it  then  had  spiritual  sensation  at  the  same 
time,  by  thinking  and  willing."     {Ibid.,  S.  434.) 

Swedenborg's  learned  disciple,  the  Rev.  Chauncey 
Giles,  goes  even  more  into  details  in  setting  forth  the 
sensuous  nature  of  the  spirit.  He  says,  in  an  address 
delivered  in  1890  before  the  convention  of  the  "  New 
Church,"  at  which  he  presided: 

"  The  New  Church  regards  the  spirit  in  an  entirely 
new  way.  According  to  its  doctrines  the  spirit  is  the 
man  himself  in  human  form,  and  the  seat  of  all  his  power 
and  life.  It  is  organized  of  spiritual  substances,  as  the 
material  body  is  organized  of  material  substances,  and 
possesses  all  the  organs,  external  and  internal,  in  general 
and  particular,  that  compose  the  material  body.  It  has 
a  head,  trunk  and  limbs,  it  has  eyes  and  ears,  a  brain, 
and  face  and  vocal  organs,  heart  and  lungs,  arteries  and 
veins  and  nerves.  Every  organ  performs  the  same  rela- 
tive function  that  the  material  organs  perform.  The 
spiritual  lungs  breathe  a  spiritual  atmosphere;  the  heart 
propels  a  spiritual  blood  through  arteries  and  veins;  the 
nerves  give  sensation  and  power;  the  hands  grasp  spirit- 
ual objects  and  the  feet  walk  upon  a  spiritual  earth.  The 
eye  opens  to  the  light  which  flows  from  the  spiritual  sun, 


SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.        89 

and  the  ear  vibrates  in  harmony  with  modulations  of  the 
spiritual  atmosphere.  As  a  whole  and  in  each  least  part 
the  spirit  is  in  the  human  form.  The  common  idea  had 
been  that  the  body  was  first  formed  and  then  the  spirit 
was  breathed  into  it,  as  men  make  an  engine  and  set  it 
in  motion  by  steam.  The  new  doctrine  teaches  that  the 
spirit  itself  molds  the  body  into  its  form,  weaves  its  fine 
and  delicate  texture  in  its  own  loom  and  clothes  itself 
in  every  least  part  with  it,  making  it  a  medium  of  com- 
munication with  the  material  world,  the  home  in  which 
it  dwells,  a  complicated  and  miraculous  instrument,  ad- 
justed with  infinite  precision  to  all  the  forms  and  forces 
of  matter,  to  gain  natural  ideas  and  delights  to  serve  as 
material  for  the  development  of  the  affections  and  the 
intellectual  faculties.  But  it  is  merely  a  temporary  serv- 
ice. The  material  body  renders  the  same  service  to  the 
spirit  that  the  husk  does  to  the  corn,  the  chaff  to  the 
grain." 

Such  a  spiritual  man,  a  very  duplicate  as  he  is  of  the 
natural  man  of  the  natural  world,  must  needs  have  a  spir- 
itual world  to  live  in  that  is  a  very  duplicate  of  that  nat- 
ural world.  Given  the  man,  the  world  must  follow.  But 
our  prophet  has  not  left  this  to  logical  inferences ;  he  tells 
us  expressly  that  it  is  so,  thus: 

"What  those  things  are  which  appear  to  the  angels  in 
the  heavens  cannot  be  described  in  a  few  words;  for  the 
most  part  they  are  like  the  things  on  the  earth,  but  more 
perfect  as  to  form,  and  of  greater  abundance. "  (Heaven 
and  Hell,  S.  171.)  Only  they  are  not  similar  in  essence, 
as  those  are  from  the  sun  of  heaven  and  these  from  that 
of  this  world.  "  When  it  has  been  given  me  to  be  in  com- 
pany with  angels,  the  things  which  are  there  have  been 
seen  by  me  altogether  as  those  which  are  in  the  world; 
and  so  perceptibly,  that  I  knew  no  otherwise  than  that  I 
was  in  the  world,  and  there  in  the  palace  of  a  King." 
{Ibid.,  S.  174.)  Again,  "In  the  spiritual  world,  or  in 
the  world  where  spirits  and  angels  are,  similar  things 


90  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

appear  as  in  the  natural  world,  or  where  men  are  ;  so 
similar  that  as  to  the  external  aspect  there  is  no  differ- 
ence. There  appear  there  plains,  and  there  appear 
mountains,  hills  and  rocks,  and  between  them  valleys; 
moreover  also  waters  and  many  other  things  which  are 
seen  on  earth.  .  .  .  Such  being  the  similarity  between 
the  spiritual  world  and  the  natural  world,  therefore  man 
after  death  scarcely  knows  otherwise  than  that  he  is  in 
the  world  where  he  was  born,  and  from  which  he  has 
departed;  for  which  reason  also  death  is  called  only  a 
translation  from  one  world  to  another  like  it."  {Ibid., 
S.  582.) 

Concerning  garments,  habitations,  &c,,  we  have:  "Be- 
cause angels  are  men  and  live  with  one  another  as  the 
men  of  the  earth  do,  therefore  they  have  garments,  habi- 
tations, and  other  like  things,  yet  with  the  difference  that 
they  have  all  things  more  perfect,  because  in  a  more  per- 
fect state."  (//^zV.,  S.  177.)  "That  the  garments  of  the 
angels  do  not  merely  appear  as  garments,  but  that  they 
really  are  garments,  is  evident  from  this,  that  they  not 
only  see  them,  but  also  feel  them;  and  also  that  they 
have  more  garments  than  one,  and  that  they  put  them  off 
and  put  them  on,  and  those  which  are  not  in  use  they 
preserve ;  and  when  in  use  they  re-assume  them ;  that 
they  are  clothed  in  various  garments  has  been  seen  by  me 
a  thousand  times."  {Ibid.,  S.  181.)  These  garments,  it 
seems,  are  gifts  of  the  Lord,  who  also  gives  to  the  devils 
in  the  hells  to  be  clothed,  lest  they  should  appear  naked, 
though  these  can  only  wear  what  is  ragged,  squalid  and 
filthy. 

As  to  habitations,  he  further  says:  "As  I  have  often 
spoken  with  angels,  face  to  face,  so  often  I  have  been 
with  them  in  their  habitations.  Their  habitations  are 
altogether  like  the  habitations  on  earth,  which  are  called 
houses,  but  more  beautiful;  in  them  are  parlors,  rooms 
and  bed-chambers  in  great  numbers ;  there  are  also  courts, 
and    round  about  are  gardens,  shrubberies  and   fields. 


SPIRITUAL   WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.       91 

Where  they  are  consociated  the  habitations  are  contigu- 
ous, one  near  another,  disposed  in  the  form  of  a  city, 
with  streets,  ways  and  public  squares,  altogether  in  like- 
ness of  cities  of  our  earth."  {Ibid.,  S.  184.)  We  also 
learn  that  all  the  necessaries  of  life  are  given  gratuitously 
to  the  angels;  "they  are  housed  gratuitously,  they  are 
clothed  gratuitously,  and  they  are  fed  gratuitously." 
{Ibid.,  S.  393.) 

All  the  angels  and  all  the  devils,  thus  all  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  spiritual  world,  are  men  who  have  lived  and 
died  on  the  various  earths  of  the  universe.  Swedenborg 
was  instructed  to  say:  "That  in  the  universal  heaven 
there  is  not  any  one  angel  who  was  so  created  from  the 
beginning,  nor  in  hell  any  devil  who  was  created  an  angel 
of  light  and  cast  down;  but  that  all,  both  in  heaven  and 
in  hell,  are  from  the  human  race;  in  heaven  those  who 
lived  in  the  world  in  heavenly  love  and  faith,  in  hell  those 
who  lived  in  infernal  love  and  faith."  {Ibid.,  S.  89.)  He 
elsewhere  calls  the  earths  "the  seminaries  (breeding 
places)  of  the  spiritual  world."     {Ibid.,  S.  583.) 

What  portion  of  space  is  occupied  by  the  vast  spirit- 
ual world,  with  its  heaven,  hell  and  world  of  spirits,  and 
into  which  those  breeding  places  of  angels  and  devils 
will  while  they  last  continue  to  pour  inhabitants,  we  are 
not  told,  but  learn  that  in  the  more  elevated  places  of 
the  spiritual  world  are  the  heavens,  in  the  low  places 
there  is  the  world  of  spirits,  and  beneath  the  latter  and 
the  former  are  the  hells,  also  that  "  heaven  in  the  whole 
complex  resembles  one  man."  {Ibid.,  S.  59.)  Though 
"the  angles  indeed  do  not  see  heaven  in  the  whole  com- 
plex in  such  a  form,  for  the  whole  heaven  does  not  fall 
into  view  of  any  angels."  {Ibid.,  S.  62.)  "There  are 
three  heavens,  and  those  most  distinct  from  each  other; 
the  inmost  or  third,  the  middle  or  second,  and  the  ulti- 
mate or  first.  They  follow  in  succession  and  subsist  to- 
gether as  the  highest  of  man,  which  is  the  head,  his 
middle,  which  is  his  body,  and  the  ultimate,  which  is  the 


92  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

feet."  {Ibid.,  S.  29.)  Which  two  last  passages,  and 
many  more  that  might  be  quoted,  show  that  Sweden- 
borg's  discovery  was  not  of  a  globular  world  like  the 
spheres  of  our  visible  heavens,  but  one  in  the  human 
form,  really  and  not  figuratively  so.  This  must  be  kept 
in  view  while  the  possibility  of  such  a  world  is  considered. 
For  the  same  purpose  we  should  remember  that  accord- 
ing to  our  seer  "the  natural  world  exists  and  subsists 
from  the  spiritual  world,  altogether  as  an  effect  from  its 
efficient  cause."  (Jdid.^S.  8g.)  Which  is  also  the  theory 
of  Professors  Balfour  Stewart  and  Taite  in  their  book, 
"The  Unseen  Universe."  And  the  most  plausible  one 
it  is  if  we  assume  that  the  one  world  is  a  duplicate,  in  a 
different  substance  (by  which  term  we  are  to  understand 
"material,"  or  "stuff"),  of  the  other,  which  is  also 
assumed  in  every  other  formulated  belief  in  a  spiritual 
world,  by  whomsoever  held. 

But,  quite  aside  from  any  of  these,  it  seems  clear  that 
any  plausible  theory  of  a  spiritual  world  must  assume  that 
one  who  passes  out  of  this  earth  life  to  become  a  citizen 
there  arises  from  his  cast-off  material  body  a  complete 
man,  complete  in  all  parts  of  him,  having  head,  trunk, 
limbs,  brain,  heart,  lungs,  liver,  and  all  other  viscera, 
organs  and  members,  the  assemblage  of  which  and  their 
combined  activities,  with  the  resulting  desires,  passions, 
thoughts  and  volitions,  make  the  man.  It  seems  clear, 
too,  that  to  fit  such  an  inhabitant,  as  a  habitat  and  en- 
vironment possible  for  him  to  dwell  in,  the  spiritual  world 
must  be  in  all  essential  respects  a  duplicate  of  the  one  he 
was  born  into  and  lived  and  died  in.  Such  considerations 
seem  to  have  been  held  in  mind  by  all  constructors  of 
such  worlds,  and  not  forgotten  even  by  the  poets.  The 
Scandinavian  ghost,  drinking  ale  out  of  his  enemy's  skull, 
must  have  a  complete  set  of  organs,  or  no  joy  could  come 
to  him  from  the  glutting  of  his  vengeance  or  the  quench- 
ing of  his  thirst,  and  the   spirit  of  the  Red  Indian  of 


SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.       93 

America  must  have  the  same  in  order  to  chase,  kill  and 
eat  his  game,  as  well  as  to  digest  it. 

As  said  before,  the  enlightened  pagans  of  antiquity 
also  recognized  the  necessity  of  giving  the  soul  some  sort 
of  a  body  to  feel  in,  and  hence  the  shade  of  which  we  read 
so  much,  and  which  had  no  other  use. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE    POSSIBILITY    OF    A    SPIRITUAL    WORLD    FURTHER 
CONSIDERED. 

The  considerable  space  given  in  this  chapter  and  the 
two  following  ones  to  Swedenborgianism  and  Modern 
Spiritualism  should  be  excused  on  the  ground  that  as 
already  suggested  they  stand  for  all  forms  of  ancestor 
worship,  the  fundamental  religion  of  all  mankind,  and 
that  in  examining  them  we  are  inspecting  the  foundation 
of  all  religion.  This  chapter,  however,  and  the  next  may 
be  skipped  by  the  impatient  reader  without  serious  breach 
of  the  book's  chain  of  argument;  but  if  he  do  so  he  will 
be  apt  to  return  to  them  later. 

Notwithstanding  Swedenborg's  insistence  on  the  close 
likeness  of  his  Spiritual  World  to  our  natural  one,  the 
differences  between  them  are  enormous.  Ours  is  but 
eight  thousand  miles  in  diameter,  his  is  large  enough  to 
hold  all  the  dead  of  the  whole  universe,  that  have  ever 
lived  and  died,  or  that  ever  will.  Ours  is  a  globe,  his  is 
in  form  a  man.  Ours  revolves  round  a  sun  and  has  nights 
and  days,  moves  on  a  tilted  axis  and  has  its  seasons,  his 
has  a  fixed  sun  that  is  always  in  the  east.  Ours  has  a 
soil,  rather  an  important  part  of  it,  since  to  till  that  soil, 
so  we  may  live  and  not  starve  to  death,  keeps  us  labori- 
ously busy;  his  may  have  one,  but  there  is  no  account  of 
its  being  tilled.  Ours  is  a  place  of  temptation  and  trans- 
gression, his  is  a  court  of  justice  and  a  prison  in  part, 
and  in  part  a  paradise  of  office-holding  angels,  who  he 
assures  us  are  wonderfully  happy,  without  telling  just 
how  they  are  so.  The  state  and  fate  of  all  adults  who  go 
to  his  are  made  up  here  below  and  can  never  be  changed ; 


SPIRITUAL   WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.        95 

the  good  become  angels  forever  and  the  bad  devils  for- 
ever. All  is  very  simple;  no  appeal,  no  pardon,  no 
change. 

Up  there  we  are  told  the  angels  are  kept  busy  enough, 
but  it  is  not  in  productive  avocations.  Concerning  what 
their  employments  are  we  are  told  that  they  are  "innu- 
merable "  but  mostly  administrative,  ' '  for  there  are  eccle- 
siastical affairs,  there  are  civil  affairs  and  there  are  domestic 
affairs."  {Ibid.,  388.)  "  There  are  societies  whose  em- 
ployments are  to  take  care  of  infants;  there  are  other 
societies  whose  employments  are  to  instruct  and  educate 
them  as  they  grow  up;  there  are  others  who  in  like  man- 
ner educate  and  instruct  boys  and  girls."  {Ibid.,  S,  391.) 
*'  There  are  others  who  teach  the  simple  good  "  and  "the 
various  Gentile  nations."  There  are  others  who  defend 
novitiate  spirits  "  from  infestations  by  evil  spirits." 
"There  are  some  also  who  are  present  to  those  who  are 
in  the  lower  earth;  and  also  some  who  are  present  to 
those  who  are  in  the  hells,  and  restrain  them  from  tor- 
menting each  other  beyond  the  prescribed  limits;  there 
are  also  some  who  are  present  to  those  who  are  raised 
from  the  dead." 

Thus  the  outcome  of  this  universe  is  a  world  where 
the  larger  part  of  its  population  after  judicial  trial  and 
also  "  exploration  "  of  the  interiors  and  a  judgment  based 
partly  on  a  certain  state  of  the  affections  and  partly  on 
overt  acts  resulting  from  it,  are  imprisoned  for  eternal 
life  in  prisons  subterraneously  excavated  under  beautiful 
and  sublime  mountains  whereon  the  angels  who  have 
been  their  triers  and  moral  vivisectors  and  after  that 
their  turnkeys  as  well,  dwell  in  heavenly  joy,  which  the 
nearness  of  the  damned  seems  no  more  to  disturb  than 
did  the  groans  of  prisoners  chained  in  dungeons  beneath 
castles  in  olden  times  disturb  the  serenity  of  my  lord  and 
his  retainers  who  feasted  in  the  halls  above.  Classified 
rudely  the  occupations  of  these  angels  are  those  of  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  rulers  and  administrators,  jailors,  dry- 


96  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

nurses, teachers  of  theology  to  the  various  Gentile  nations, 
exorcisers  of  "evil  spirits,"  guardians  of  mortals  in  the 
flesh,  and  ushers  of  newly  arriving  spirits.  For  the  per- 
formance of  all  these  duties  except  those  of  the  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  administrations  as  many  angels  as  would 
equal  in  number  the  product  by  the  earths  of  the  uni- 
verse during  a  single  generation  of  time  would  surely 
suffice,  because  the  subjects  of  their  care  do  not  exceed 
in  number,  we  are  told,  the  incomers  during  not  more 
than  thirty  years — in  which  time  those  needing  it  will 
have  completed  their  growth  and  education  and  found 
their  way  to  heaven  or  hell — while  as  to  those  in  earth 
life  needing  guardianship  they  would  not  average  in 
length  of  years  more  than  about  the  same  time.  And  the 
foregoing  duties  being  provided  for,  the  remainder  of 
the  enormous  population  of  angels  accumulated  during 
infinite  ages  in  the  past  have  for  their  only  occupation 
the  administrative  duties  of  Church  and  State  in  the 
heavens,  and  the  keeping  order  in  the  hells.  The  Church 
services  (where  the  angels  are  the  worshippers)  need  not 
employ  more  than  one  in  a  thousand,  and  as  to  the  num- 
ber required  down  below,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  the 
details  for  the  disagreeable  duty  of  keeping  ragged  and 
ill-smelling  prisoners  in  order  must  be  as  small  as  possible 
and  their  watches  as  short,  especially  since  to  help  them 
in  their  duties,  they  are  allowed  the  aid  of  a  corps  of 
devils  selected  for  their  superior  cruelty.  "Wherefore 
the  more  malignant  are  set  over  them  as  governors, 
whom  they  obey  from  fear."  (Heaven  and  Hell,  S.  220.) 
So  that  the  occupations  of  the  innumerable  hosts  of 
angels  accumulated  during  eternity,  all  the  worlds  in  the 
universe  contributing  to  their  production  as  "  semina- 
ries," consist  in  caring  for  the  human  product  of  those 
worlds  yielded  during  a  scant  generation  of  time,  and 
in  ruling  over  one  another  as  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
officials  during  time  without  end.  Why  they  need  so 
much  ruling  is  not  revealed,  nor  how  they  manage  to  be, 


SPIRITUAL   WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.       97 

as  is  revealed,  both  very  busy  and  very  happy.  Thus 
much  for  the  constitution  of  the  supposed  Spiritual 
World,  now  for  its  content. 

The  world  discovered  by  Swedenborg  is  essentially  a 
religious  one;  but  his  fall  of  man,  original  sin,  trinity, 
atonement,  faith,  justice,  mercy,  salvation,  free-will  and 
their  final  outcomes,  heaven,  purgatory  and  hell,  differ 
from  those  of  all  other  creeds.  In  S.  424  of  "  Heaven  and 
Hell  "  we  learn  that  "man  is  born  into  every  evil  as  to 
the  will";  that  he  is  nevertheless  capable  of  being  re- 
formed by  instruction  if  only  his  evilly-born  will  will  so 
will,  which  instruction  is  based  on  a  hidden  sense  in  the 
Jewish  and  Christian  scriptures  that  was  by  their  authors 
so  long  and  so  well  hidden  that  it  was  not  found  out 
until  he  came  to  discover  at  once  it  and  the  world  it  re- 
lates to.  But  no  amount  of  instruction  can  alter  a  man's 
destiny  unless  he  gets  it  m  earthly  life,  or  dies  an  infant 
or  excusable  pagan,  &c.  The  angels  have  a  way  of 
searching  his  interiors  and  so  finding  out  just  the  state 
of  his  affections,  whether  he  loves  God  and  his  neighbor 
or  himself;  if  himself  he  goes  to  hell  forever.  And 
this  even  if  he  loves  also  "his  own,"  who,  specially,  are 
his  children  and  his  grandchildren,  but  generally  all 
who  make  one  with  him,  whom  he  calls  his;  for  to  love 
these  is  the  same  as  to  love  himself.  Amongst  those 
whom  he  calls  his  own  are  likewise  all  who  commend, 
honor  and  pay  their  court  to  him.  To  the  unilluminated 
it  would  seem  that  a  man  who  loved  his  family,  friends 
and  dependents,  would  make  a  good  citizen  enough  for 
all  practical  purposes,  since  from  the  interlacing  of 
families  and  other  civic  relations,  all  the  world  must 
thus  get  loved,  if  not  by  everybody  yet  by  somebody, 
so  there  would  be  in  a  world  of  such  loving  friends 
enough  to  do  for  all  every  needed  office  of  kindness  and 
supply  every  needed  thmg,  yet  it  is  not  so;  one  with 
a  love  thus  limited  goes  to  hell  without  remedy.  The 
examination  of  the  interiors    is   done    early  after    the 


98  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

spirit's  arrival  in  the  vast  intermediate  state  and  place 
called  "  the  world  of  spirits,"  where  are  also  carried  on 
certain  judicial  enquiries  concerning  the  man  s  overt  evil 
acts,  which  last  seems  hardly  necessary  though,  since  the 
investigation  of  the  interiors  of  him  have  already  settled 
his  destiny.  These  proceedings  are  by  no  means  sum- 
mary either.  Of  one  branch  of  testimony  we  read,  "  the 
manifestations  continued  sometimes  for  hours  together." 
Memorandum  books  were  "opened  and  read  before 
them  (the  culprits),  page  by  page."  Again,  "and  what 
was  wonderful  the  letters  and  papers  which  passed  be- 
tween them  were  read  in  my  hearing,  and  it  was  said 
that  not  a  word  was  wanting."  "  In  a  word,  all  evils,  vil- 
lainies, robberies,  artifices,  deceits,  are  manifested  to 
every  evil  spirit,  and  brought  forth  from  their  memory, 
and  they  are  convicted;  nor  is  there  any  room  for 
denial."  Considering  the  time  and  trouble  which  these 
long  criminal  trials  must  require,  and  also  that  to  judge 
the  souls  of  a  whole  universe  billions  of  causes  must  be 
disposed  of  daily,  it  must  be  admitted  that  some  of  the 
angels  at  least  are  able  to  keep  busy.  Quite  in  accord- 
ance with  the  self-acting,  self-sustaining,  co-operative 
system  of  criminal  discipline  that  prevails  in  the  spiritual 
world,  the  condemned  spirits,  now  become  perfect  devils, 
"cast  themselves  down  into  hell,"  and  when  they  get 
there  go  to  tormenting  one  another,  each  performing 
the  double  part  of  devil  and  sinner.  Perhaps  they  go 
thus  willingly  because  they  have  learned,  what  the  reader 
soon  will,  that  Swedenborg's  hell  is  not  wholly  without 
its  compensations,  nor  his  heaven  quite  without  its  draw- 
backs.    Here  are  some  of  the  compensations: 

First.  There  is  little  or  no  law  in  hell.  It  is  only 
when  its  people  torment  each  other  beyond  a  certain 
reasonable  measure  that  a  squad  of  angels  goes  down, 
and  with  the  help  of  some  of  the  "more  malignant 
among  them,"  called  in  as  a  sort  of  special  constables, 
re-establishes  order. 


SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.        99 

Secondly.  Though  to  the  angels  the  stench  of  the 
hells  seems  vile,  yet  we  are  told  that  to  the  devils  them- 
selves it  is  not  at  all  so;  and  by  analogy  we  may  infer 
that  the  rags  they  wear  are  to  them  comfortable  and 
decent  clothing. 

Thirdly.  The  devils  are  allowed  the  companionship 
of  their  families  and  friends  and  all  the  comfort  they  can 
find  in  stealing  one  another's  wives — or  having  their  own 
stolen — adultery  being  their  chief  delight  and  occupa- 
tion. 

Finally,  he  reports  that  the  devils  themselves,  who  are 
really  the  only  parties  concerned,  feel  happy  where  they 
are  and  would  not  go  elsewhere  if  they  could. 

Certainly,  considering  the  times  he  lived  in  our  seer 
deserves  credit  for  the  consolations  he  allows  his  devils, 
while  as  to  his  angels — yes,  as  to  his  angels — let  him 
who  thinks  he  can  devise  a  mode  of  future  existence 
for  disembodied  men  that  shall  bear  in  its  detail  even 
slight  criticism  from  the  point  of  view  of  common  sense, 
take  up  the  pen  and  write.  Like  all  who  have  hereto- 
fore attempted  it,  he  will  find  his  heaven  more  difficult 
to  contrive  than  his  hell;  possibly  because  man-made 
worlds,  celestial  or  infernal,  from  the  very  limitations  of 
man's  nature  must  always  be  modeled  on  this,  and  in 
this  we  know  a  good  deal  about  torment  and  a  very  little 
about  joy.  The  task  of  him  who  would  imagine  and  in 
detail  describe  an  universe  could  hardly  be  less  than  that 
of  creating  one,  and  it  is  therefore  quite  beyond  the 
powers  of  man  or  spirit.  Here  is  a  specimen  of  the 
difficulties  of  it: 

Swedenborg  having  endowed  the  people  of  hell  with 
the  ability  to  indulge  in  sinful  love  was  bound  in  logic 
to  give  the  people  of  heaven  the  analogous  ability  to  in- 
dulge in  sinless  love;  and  this  he  does  in  his  "  Con- 
jugial  Love,"  as  well  as  in  his  "Heaven  and  Hell," 
which  last,  in  order  to  distinctly  show  what  he  meant,  I 
quote  (S.  402) :   "  Conjugial  delight,  which  is  a  purer  and 


100  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

more  exquisite  At\\^\.  of  touch,  is  more  excellent  than  all 
those  (other  delights  of  sense)  on  account  of  its  use, 
which  is  the  procreation  of  the  human  race,  and  thence 
of  angels  of  heaven."  Having  gone  thus  far  a  mighty 
problem  arose,  to  wit,  how  to  deal  with  the  product  of 
heavenly,  letting  alone  hellish,  love-making,  which  he 
solved  to  his  own  satisfaction  at  least,  by  making  his 
angels,  though  loving,  sterile,  except  that  they  are  able 
to  beget  and  bear  what  he  calls  "goods  and  truths," 
from  which  it  maybe  inferred  that  his  incontinent  devils 
are  only  prolific  of  what  he  calls  "evils  and  falses"; 
which,  however,  still  leaves  for  solution  the  question, 
what  kind  of  things  those  goods  and  truths,  evils  and 
falses  are  that  come  of  human  begetting? 

Further  to  show  that  Swedenborg's  theology  in  its 
articles  of  faith  is  different  from  every  other;  he  has 
no  original  sin,  but  instead  an  original  sinfulness,  from 
which  the  victim  of  it  can  be  saved  only  through  receiv- 
ing and  profiting  by  a  course  of  instruction  in  the  Bible's 
arcane  meaning  as  above  mentioned.  And  he  allows  no 
justification  by  faith,  but  only  a  reformation  by  means 
of  such  instruction  which  must  be  effected  during  earth- 
life  or  never  at  all.  Man  goes  to  heaven  or  hell,  not 
because  they  are  places  of  punishment  or  reward,  but 
because  fate  ordains  it  so,  perhaps,  or  as  a  theological 
necessity.  Punishment  just  attaches  itself  to  sin  as  it 
does  in  the  Hindu  system,  and  will  not  be  shook  off,  by 
force  of  a  law  which,  like  the  law  of  "Karma,"  is  very 
labor-saving,  if  not  so  discriminating  or  so  mild  as  that. 

There  is  no  theological  justice  to  be  vindicated,  either 
by  the  vicarious  sufferings  of  Jesus  or  the  eternal  burn- 
ing of  such  as  can  not  or  will  not  believe  the  story  of 
them. 

Nor  is  there  any  divine  wrath  to  be  appeased  by  any- 
body's suffering.  Neither  mercy,  justice  nor  wrath  play 
any  part  in  this  prophet's  revelations,  nor  in  the  Bible  as 
he  has  interpreted  it. 


SPIRITUAL   WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.      101 

As  in  all  other  systems,  the  Almighty  does  the  best  he 
can. 

Religious  services  are  continually  held  in  heaven. 

There  is  no  resurrection  of  the  body,  nor  any  such 
last  day  judgment  as  Christians  of  other  sects  believe  in. 

As  there  are  no  angels  in  heaven  who  were  not  once 
men,  like  ourselves,  so  except  a  rather  imperfect  trinity, 
there  is  no  hierarchy  of  celestial  birth,  no  archangels. 

Neither  Lucifer  nor  Beelzebub,  nor  Satan  nor  other 
pagan  god  does  duty  as  the  one  omnipotent  devil  in 
Swedenborg's  hell,  any  more  than  in  Mohammed's. 

Finally,  he  does  not  withdraw  his  theology  from  the 
criticism  of  reason,  but  rather  invites  it.  His  authority 
for  it  is  that  it  was  revealed  to  him  by  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
now  the  Ruler  of  the  Universe,  in  thousands  of  interviews 
had  with  him  in  heaven,  which,  though  as  good  author- 
ity as  any  creed  can  claim,  has  obtained  as  yet  but  small 
acceptance,  but  his  report  of  things  seen  and  heard  by 
him  in  the  spiritual  world,  its  manners  and  customs,  soil 
and  climate,  occupations  and  productions,  and  the  nature 
and  constitution  of  the  spiritual  man,  has  gained  great 
acceptance  in  their  character  as  formulations  of  the  old 
vaguely  but  universally  held  belief  now  being  considered. 
They  make  up  the  best  working  hypothesis  by  far  yet 
put  forward  for  investigators  of  modern  spiritual  mani- 
festations, which  is  a  precious  boon  to  all  the  millions 
who  are  classed  as  such,  and  is  not  without  value  to 
other  searchers  into  occult  nature  now  working  hard  to 
find  out  a  better. 

In  "  The  True  Christian  Religion  "  (S.  829),  where  the 
condition  of  the  Mohammedans  in  the  spiritual  world  is 
described,  we  find  the  following:  "And  because  Ma- 
homet is  always  in  their  minds  in  connection  with  relig- 
ion, therefore,  some  Mahomet  is  always  placed  in  their 
view;  and  that  they  may  turn  their  faces  towards  the 
East,  over  which  the  Lord  is,  therefore  he  is  placed 
beneath  the  middle,  occupied  by  Christians,     It  is  not 


103  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

Mahomet  himself,  who  wrote  the  Koran,  but  another, 
who  fills  his  place;  nor  is  it  always  the  same,  but  he  is 
changed.  Once  it  was  one  from  Saxony,  who,  being 
taken  by  the  Algerians,  became  a  Mahometan.  He, 
because  he  had  also  been  a  Christian,  was  led  several 
times  to  speak  with  them  of  the  Lord,  that  he  was  not 
the  son  of  Joseph,  but  the  Son  of  God  himself.  That 
Mahomet  was  afterwards  succeeded  by  others.  In  the 
place  where  that  representative  Mahomet  has  his  seat 
there  appears  a  fire,  as  of  a  little  torch,  that  he  may  be 
known  ;  but  that  fire  is  conspicuous  only  to  Mahometans. " 
Elsewhere  we  are  told  that  this  "  representative  Ma- 
homet "  was  set  up  to  prevent  the  disorders  that  would 
otherwise  arise  among  Mahometan  spirits  on  their  first 
arrival,  and  who,  as  they  came  trooping  in  by  tens  of 
thousands,  clamored  to  be  shown  their  beloved  prophet, 
not  knowing  he  was  long  ago  deposed  from  his  seat  for 
misbehavior. 

It  seems  there  was  like  trouble  with  the  Jews,  who 
came  clamoring  for  "  father  Abraham,"  and  that  to  cheat 
them  also  in  the  interest  of  order  and  quiet  a  "  represent- 
ative Abraham  "  was  set  up  and  shown  to  them,  the  orig- 
inal being,  as  it  happened,  like  Mohammed,  undergoing 
discipline  and  deprived  of  his  place. 

These  two  examples  of  systematic  deception  on  a  vast 
scale  do  not  seem  at  all  to  have  shocked  the  moral  sense 
of  the  narrator  of  them,  nor  at  all  to  have  shaken  his  faith 
in  the  veracity  of  the  angels  in  other  respects.  So  that 
when  he  was  presented  to  one  who  told  him  he  was  Jesus 
Christ,  Lord  and  Ruler  of  the  Universe,  he  did  not  sus- 
pect he  was  being  fooled  as  he  had  seen  the  Mohammed- 
ans and  Jews  fooled,  nor  that  some  unimportant  spirit  was 
dramatizing  before  him  as  a  representative  Christ,  nor 
that  the  voluminous  disclosures  that  representative  made 
to  him,  as  well  by  word  of  mouth  and  face  to  face  as  by 
angelic  commissioners  sent  to  show  him  round,  concern- 
ing the  newly  discovered  doctrines  of  the  New  Church 


SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.      103 

and,  more  than  that,  the  very  arcana  of  Nature,  might 
be  mere  fables.  The  which  resolves  his  long,  far  and 
frequent  journeyings  through  the  world  of  spirits  into 
phantasmagoria  of  the  subjective  kind. 

Swedenborg's  revelations  have  great  value  to  the  stu- 
dent of  such  things,  as  being  modern  and  within  reach 
of  investigation.  The  visions  that  came  to  him,  and  the 
sights  he  went  to  spiritual  lands  to  see,  date  only  a  cent- 
ury and  a  half  back,  and  were  promulgated  in  broad  in- 
tellectual daylight.  Nothing  was  done  in  a  corner.  As 
a  learned,  scientific  and  practical  man  he  was  well  known 
to  all  such  throughout  Europe.  His  good  and  pure  char- 
acter, his  abilities  and  acquirements  are  testified  to  in  the 
writings  of  his  contemporaries  in  a  way  that  leaves  no 
room  for  doubt  that  he  was  as  fit  to  receive  truth  from 
supernatural  sources,  if  there  be  such,  and  to  reveal  it 
to  the  world  as  Zoroaster,  Mohammed,  Pythagoras,  or  any 
other  mortal  who  ever  dreamed  or  wrote.  He  can  be  got 
at,  seized,  handled,  weighed,  measured  and  tested  better, 
perhaps,  than  if  he  lived  now,  for  a  certain  interval  of 
time  is  required  for  a  good  view  of  any  historic  character. 
He  bears  examination  well,  though  his  religion  does  not, 
and  while  the  one  is  not  doubted  the  other  is  to  the  world 
at  large  but  rubbish.  Or  if  now  and  then  a  reader,  struck 
by  the  marvellous  vigor  of  his  writings,  goes  far  enough 
into  them  to  get  at  their  meaning,  he  must  stumble  over, 
as  he  goes,  absurdities  like  those  of  which  some  few  are 
pointed  out  in  this  and  a  former  chapter  that  finally  make 
him  lay  them  by,  not  without  wonder  and  perplexity  that 
a  man  who  could  so  write  should  have  written  so.  And 
at  the  same  time  that  his  teaching  is  thus  contemned,  hun- 
dreds of  millions  of  both  the  ignorant  and  wise  either 
actually  believe  in  some  form  of  it,  the  religion  that  was 
set  up  by  St.  Paul,  or  think  they  do,  or  else  are  just  now 
and  but  slowly  finding  out  that  they  do  not.  Yet  the  sub- 
ject of  Paul's  visions  and  teachings  lived  so  long  ago  and 
so  obscurely  that  learned  men  doubt  if  he  ever  lived  at 


104  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

all;  while  the  record  of  his  sayings  and  acts  is  known  to 
have  been  in  the  hands  and  keeping  of  forgers  by  voca- 
tion since  the  time  when,  by  the  votes  of  a  very  inferior 
body  of  men,  it  was  made  legal  tender  as  the  Word  of 
God. 

So  far  as  we  have  any  good  account  of  their  begin- 
nings, all  religions  and  all  their  great  embranchments 
and  engraftments  have  had  a  like  origin,  however  dif- 
ferent their  contents.  None  has  been  by  the  god  of  it 
given  directly  to  mankind,  but  each  has  come  through 
an  intermediary  prophet,  having  natural  or  acquired 
receptivity  for  so-called  supernatural  inflow,  and  also 
miraculous  powers,  so  called,  to  exhibit  as  sanction  for 
his  authority  to  speak  for  God  and  control  man.  Such 
were  Zoroaster,  Pythagoras,  Moses,  Saul  of  Tarsus,  Mo- 
hammed, Boehme,  and  such  was  Swedenborg.  No  devo- 
tee of  any  faith  can  trace  the  sources  of  it  further  back 
than  to  some  such  intermediary,  nor  can  this  last  trace 
further  back  than  to  something  lying  within  his  own  self 
the  revelation  he  transmits,  be  it  given  to  him  by  intel- 
lectual illumination,  symbolic  visions  or  talking  ones, 
clairaudience,  clairvoyance,  automatic  or  direct  writing, 
trance-speaking,  or  whatever  other  of  the  now  well- 
known  and  well  known  to  have  been  always  common 
methods  by  which  the  hidden  world  speaks  to  the  mani- 
fest one  the  medium  was  adapted  to.  The  mystic, 
already  religious,  threading  the  path  of  contemplation, 
in  search  of  the  source  of  his  being,  already  believed  to 
be  a  god,  in  hope  to  attain  to  union  with  it,  comes  upon 
his  own  very  self  (but  his  inward  self)  as  objectified  by 
itself  in  form  of  that  god  or  his  messenger,  and  forth- 
with bows  down  before  and  worships  himself;  and  then 
whatever  revelation  is  thus  vouchsafed  to  him  he  com- 
municates to  the  world  with  the  zeal  that  comes  with 
absolute  conviction,  as  the  absolute  truth  all  men  long 
for,  to  meet  with  more  or  less  acceptance  according  as 
time,  place   and   circumstance   may  suit.      In  a  smaller 


SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.      105 

way  lesser  prophets  have  had  their  visions,  illuminations, 
&c.,  in  countless  number  as  auxiliary  revelations,  enur- 
ing to  the  benefit  of  their  preconceived  ideas,  and  either 
really  or  by  force  of  construction  redounding  to  the 
glory  of  their  Church. 

Real  prophets  have  so  abounded  that  there  is  no  need 
to  suppose  false  ones,  and  in  judging  a  given  revelation 
the  idea  of  imposture  may  generally  be  put  aside,  as  cer- 
tainly it  may  be — nay,  must  be — in  Swedenborg's  case. 
None  but  a  member  of  the  little  "Church  of  the  New 
Jerusalem  "  will  believe  that  its  founder  went  to  heaven, 
and  there,  person  to  person,  got  his  instructions  from 
the  Lord  of  the  Universe,  though  many  enough  will,  in 
the  light  of  our  present  knowledge,  be  willing  to  admit 
that  he  thought  he  did,  being  made  so  to  think,  however, 
by  subjective  causes  working  wholly  within  him.  And 
imposture  not  being  a  necessary  supposition,  yet  error, 
inconsistency  and  absurdity  being  apparent,  the  inference 
must  be  that  fallible  man  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  whole 
business,  and  not  infallible  God. 

Swedenborgianism,  coming  in  the  regular  way  by  which 
all  religions  have  come,  and  having  a  content  certainly 
more  rational  and  credible  than  any,  being  nevertheless 
condemned  by  the  age  to  which  it  is  submitted  for  judg- 
ment, all  others  must  be  condemned,  and  if  any  newly 
contrived  one  is  to  obtain  favor  it  must  arise  in  a  very 
different  way  and  be  a  very  different  thing.  A  revelation 
concerning  a  future  state  or  world,  to  be  worthy  of  be- 
lief, or  even  of  attention,  should  be  as  full,  precise  and 
detailed  as  accounts  from  a  continent  across  the  ocean 
are  expected  to  be.  And  if  we  are  to  guide  our  steps  in 
this  world  by  light  coming  from  another,  that  light  should 
shed  as  clear  a  ray  as  the  one  we  already  have  here. 
Swedenborg  seems  to  have  appreciated  all  this,  for  he 
worked  hard  and  voluminously  at  the  details  of  his  plan 
as  if  in  hopes  to  make  it  hold  itself  together,  but  with  an 
opposite  result,  for  the  more  details  of  it  are  given  the 


106      SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED. 

easier  it  is  to  criticise,  and  while  the  established  faiths  it 
was  expected  to  overturn  find  a  measure  of  safety  by- 
hiding  their  heads  in  the  clouds  of  obscurity  and  indefi- 
niteness  this  newly  proposed  one  has  its  weakness  in  being 
too  clearly  explained  and  defined.  Swedenborg  came  too 
late  and  did  his  work  too  thoroughly  for  it  to  prevail 
either  against  old  beliefs,  held  to  because  they  are  old 
and  therefore  deep-rooted  in  the  mental  and  sentimental 
habitudes  of  believers,  or  against  the  unbelief  of  free- 
minded  men. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

THE     POSSIBILITY    OF    A    SPIRITUAL    WORLD    FURTHER    CON- 
SIDERED. 

The  Spiritual  World  of  Modern  Spiritualisin. 

Concerning  what  becomes  of  the  souls  of  men  after 
death  the  different  religions  have  each  a  different  story 
to  tell,  or  if,  perchance,  any  two  can  by  construction  be 
made  to  agree  on  this  point  they  must  differ  on  others, 
else  they  would  be  not  two,  but  one.  Now,  Divine  revela- 
tions cannot  be  allowed  to  differ  on  any  point;  that  is  a 
privilege  accorded  only  to  human  ones.  It  is  essential  to  a 
communication  coming  from  an  Omniscient  deity  that  it 
tell  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth, 
and,  therefore,  of  all  the  many  "  other  worlds  "  that  have 
been  revealed  to  dwellers  in  this,  only  one  at  most  can  be 
the  real  one.  But  as  the  sacerdotal  keepers  of  the  archives 
of  each  tell  their  devotees  that  their  own  is  that  very  one, 
no  inconvenience  results,  and  each  sect  of  believers  is 
complacent  in  the  steadfast  faith  that  all  the  world  is  lied 
to  but  themselves.  But  he  who  rummages  the  records 
concerning  these  revelations  until  he  finds  out,  as  he  will 
if  he  rummages  deep,  that  all  are  from  one  and  the  same 
occult,  and,  to  the  vulgar,  miraculous  source,  in  short, 
that  all  come  in  the  same  way  and  are  proved  in  the  same 
way,  will  criticise  them  all  as  if  coming  from  one  witness, 
and  to  him  it  will  be  the  same  as  if  a  single  person  claim- 
ing to  know  all  about  a  given  matter  in  dispute  should 
tell  as  many  different  stories  about  it  as  there  are  revealed 
religions  in  the  world,  and  be  forced  by  his  reason  to  deny, 
not  merely  all  save  one,  but  all  without  exception,  also  to 


108  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

deny  that  any  revelation  coming  from  such  a  source  is 
competent  to  prove  anything  whatever,  least  of  all,  fitly 
serve  as  a  rule  of  human  conduct,  for  the  first  principles 
of  evidence  teach  that  a  witness  who  tells  two  different 
stories  about  the  same  thing  is  not  to  be  believed  as  to 
either  of  them,  nor  as  to  anything  else,  and,  even  more, 
teach  that  a  witness  found  to  be  false  in  merely  one  detail 
of  his  statement  must  be  deemed  false  in  all.  Accounts 
of  the  spiritual  world  of  our  modern  Spiritualists  such  as 
are  generally  accepted  as  true  by  those  who  seek  for  and 
obtain  them,  come  just  as  religions  do  by  revelation 
through  intermediaries  and  are  attested  by  miracles; 
revelations  as  good  as  any,  and  miracles  as  good  as  any. 
But,  there  being  as  yet  no  Church  to  declare  which  ac- 
counts shall  be  received  as  authoritative  and  which  re- 
jected as  not,  the  Spiritualists  find  themselves  encum- 
bered with  thousands  of  conflicting  revelations.  To  be 
sure,  these  ought  not  to  be  held  to  the  strict  rules  that 
apply  where  it  is  something  claimed  to  be  the  word  of 
God  that  is  to  be  judged,  for  they  claim  to  be  nothing 
more  than  words  of  deceased  men,  but  it  certainly  is  not 
unfair  to  criticise  them  by  the  same  canons  by  which 
human  testimony  in  earth-life  is  tested,  according  to 
which  canons  circumstantial  details,  in  themselves  in- 
significant, have  their  importance  as  criteria  by  which  to 
judge  the  knowledge  or  veracity  of  a  witness.  Here  are 
some  of  the  most  important  contradictions  to  be  found 
in  the  revelations  in  question: 

There  is  a  God. 

There  is  no  God. 

There  is  one  only  true  devil. 

There  is  no  devil  at  all. 

There  is  eternal  punishment. 

There  is  only  temporal  punishment. 

There  is  no  punishment  at  all;  only  infinite  progres- 
sion in  wisdom  and  goodness. 

There  is  no  pre-natal  existence. 


SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.      109 

We  have  passed  through  many  earthly  existences  and 
must  pass  through  many  more  yet,  in  order  to  learn  on 
earth  how  to  behave  in  heaven. 

These  re-incarnations  are  for  the  gaining  of  experi- 
ences only. 

They  are  for  experience  and  also  for  expiation  of  sin 
through  suffering,  i.  <f.,  for  punishment. 

The  Christian  Bible  is  the  word  of  God  and  is  infallible. 

It  is  not  the  word  of  God,  but  only  words  of  prophets 
under  control  of  spirits  of  the  dead  and  is  fallible. 

There  is  no  such  place  as  hell. 

There  is  a  perfectly  orthodox  hell,  manned  by  devils 
quite  scriptural. 

The  occupations  of  the  people  of  the  spirit-world  are 
like  those  they  followed  in  this. 

They  are  not,  but  are  quite  different. 

There  is  a  first,  a  second,  a  third  and  a  fourth  spiritual 
sphere. 

There  are  seven  such  spheres. 

There  is  only  one. 

There  is  an  indefinite  number  of  them. 

This  religion  is  the  true  one. 

That  religion  is  the  true  one. 

No  religion  is  true. 

The  excuse  for  these  conflicting  stories  is  that  they  are 
colored  by  the  beliefs  of  the  medium  or  of  the  enquirers, 
or  of  the  spirits  invoked.  But  are  the  differences  in  them 
just  shown,  and  for  the  correct  giving  of  which  every 
Spiritualist's  experience  may  be  referred  to,  differences 
of  color?  God  and  no  God,  hell  and  no  hell,  Bible  and 
no  Bible  ? 

It  is  quite  otherwise  with  respect  to  spiritual  guidance 
in  mundane  affairs. 

If  the  spirits  engaged  in  such  good  work  are  the  same 
as  those  who  have  for  fifty  years  been  trying  to  tell  us 
something  about  the  world  they  say  lies  next  to  this  with- 
out as  yet  giving  us  a  key-hole  glimpse  of  it,  then  for 


110  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

their  bad  work  in  this  latter  respect  they  cannot  be  ex- 
cused on  the  ground  of  stupidity,  for  in  such  guidance 
they  give  proof  of  having  more  than  mundane  wisdom, 
at  least.  If  they  are  the  same  we  have  in  them  a  source 
of  information  claiming  to  cover  two  worlds,  that  is  to 
say,  this  one  which  they  claim  to  have  left  and  that  one 
which  they  claim  to  have  gone  to,  that  tells  us  about 
that  nothing  we  can  believe  and  about  this  more  than  we 
ourselves  know,  just  as  if  missionaries  sent  out  to  the 
heathen  should  be  able  to  instruct  them  truly  in  all  things 
relating  to  their  own  country,  but  be  unable  to  tell  any- 
thing but  lies  about  that  from  which  they  were  themselves 
sent.  The  proofs  are  abundant  and  incontestable  that  in 
countless  cases  there  have  come  from  intelligences  claim- 
ing to  be  spirits  of  the  departed  instructions,  warnings 
and  predictions  to  guide  and  protect  the  living  ;  that 
from  the  same  intelligences  have  come  eloquent  and  wise 
discourses,  theological,  metaphysical,  psychological  and 
ethical,  and  not  a  few  scientific  and  industrial  discoveries 
and  inventions;  that  by  them  disease  has  been  discovered 
and  cured  and  calamities  averted.  In  all  which  is  abun- 
dant proof  of  love,  benevolence,  kindness,  and  watchful 
care,  with  desire  to  benefit  mankind  in  every  way.  Why 
should  beings  truthful,  intelligent,  strong  and  good  in 
relation  to  mundane  things,  pretend  to  a  knowledge  of 
things  celestial  that  they  are  not  possessed  of,  or  conceal 
if  they  are  ? 

To  be  more  specific,  contradictions  and  absurdities  in 
relation  to  matters  and  things  of  every-day  life  in  the 
spiritual  world  that  ought  to  be  as  well  known  to  spirits 
dwelling  there  as  the  like  things  are  to  us  here  will  be 
considered  now  under  the  heads  of  Dtuellings,  Clothing, 
Food^  Locomotion  and  Occupations. 

Dwellings  in  the  Spiritual  World. 

In  the  year  1883,  a  book  entitled  "Our  Homes  and 
Our  Employments  Hereafter,"  was  published  by  Doctor 


SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.      Ill 

M.  Peebles,  a  well-known  writer  on  Spiritualism,  ex- 
pressly to  satisfy  the  demand  for  details  of  the  spiritual 
world.  "Give  us  details,"  his  preface  begins,  "details 
and  accurate  delineations  of  life  in  the  spirit  world! — 
is  the  constant  appeal  of  thoughtful  minds.  Death  is 
approaching.  Whither — oh,  whither  ?  Shall  I  know  my 
friends  beyond  the  tomb  ?  Will  they  know  me  ?  What 
is  their  present  condition  and  what  their  occupations  ?  " 
The  work  is  chiefly  made  up  of  what  are  evidently  the 
most  rational  and  plausible  ' '  communications  "  the  author 
could  select,  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  in  all,  and 
which  are  confessedly  somewhat  edited,  in  the  interest 
of  harmony  of  course.  In  respect  to  the  most  important 
detail,  the  sort  of  home  to  be  found  over  there,  and  how 
acquired,  we  have  on  page  91 :  "  Spirits  do  not  construct 
buildings  from  spirit  substance  by  will-power  alone. 
Mechanical  skill  and  well-directed  energies  are  required 
in  the  construction  of  machines,  buildings  and  towering 
temples."  On  page  182  we  have:  "My  house  corre- 
sponds with  what  you  call  a  dwelling,  with  its  neces- 
sary surroundings.  The  labor  of  the  hands,  directed  by 
cultivated  taste  and  skill — intelligent  will-power — were 
brought  into  requisition  for  its  construction.  I  assisted 
in  the  building.  Co-operation  is  the  rule  with  us  in 
such  labors."  But  on  page  128  is:  "  During  our  sojourn 
on  earth  our  homes  are  prepared  for  us  by  the  angels, 
and  are  built  of  the  vibrations  which  go  forth  into  the 
spiritual  atmosphere  from  our  hearts  and  lives.  Will 
power,  when  it  subdues  evil,  beautifies  our  home.  When 
a  spirit  habitation  is  no  longer  required  the  atoms  of 
which  it  is  composed  are  dissipated,  the  spirits  carrying 
with  them  up  to  a  higher  sphere  the  materials,  which 
then  form  the  nucleus  of  a  more  glorious  home.  Spirits 
who  have  gained  a  complete  victory  over  matter  can 
cause  habitations  to  spring  into  being  at  will;  and  then 
they  cease  to  exist  as  soon  as  no  longer  needed."  If  we 
have  in  this  last  an  implication  that  though  some  spirits 


112  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

can  build  houses  without  hand-work,  others  have  to  ply 
the  trowel  or  carry  the  hod,  there  is  consolation  in  find- 
ing in  another  account  that  a  little  labor  goes  a  great 
ways  up  there.  On  page  207  is:  "The  construction 
of  homes  in  the  spirit  world  of  which  I  am  an  inhabitant 
does  not  require  so  much  muscular  effort  as  it  does 
desire  and  will,"  and  on  page  166:  "Once  I  saw  a  large 
company  of  spirits  erecting  a  capacious  stone  building. 
It  surprised  me.  I  observed  them  until  one  story  was 
accomplished,  for  they  worked  very  rapidly."  But  on 
page  194,  where  a  home  is  described  as  "studded  with 
precious  gems,  with  streams  of  water  rippling  over  beds 
of  diamonds  and  pearls,  gardens  containing  every  kind 
of  luscious  fruits,"  we  further  read  that  it  was  "not 
made  with  hands,  but  by  the  pure  thoughts  and  good 
actions  expressed  in  the  earthly  life."  On  page  212 
is:  "I  found  this  home  ready  for  me  on  leaving  the 
earthly  body.  The  silent  work  of  construction  went 
steadily  on  from  my  very  youth  on  earth,  and  is  still 
being  carried  forward,  each  act  producing  a  correspond- 
ing effect  on  the  structure."  And  on  the  same  page 
the  spirit  of  Horace  Greeley  says:  "I  have  a  home, 
lovely  and  grand — a  home  of  nature's  beauties,  works  of 
art,  and  gems  of  spirit  literature — a  located  and  real 
home — a  home  that  increases  in  beauty  as  I  progress 
towards  eternal  light  —  a  home  of  which,  during  my 
earthly  life,  I  was  the  unconscious  architect  and  builder." 
Then  he  speaks  of  his  wrong-doing  and  missteps,  evi- 
dently alluding  to  his  accepting  the  Democratic  party's 
nomination  for  President.  On  page  224  is:  "  My  home 
in  my  present  sphere  is  ever  made  by  myself,  and  not  by 
another  for  me.  It  is  truly  a  home  not  made  with 
hands."  In  the  Sixth  sphere,  as  is  stated  on  page  75, 
"  they  do  not  seem  to  have  fixed  habitations,  but  when 
they  need  a  covering  it  is  immediately  improvised  from 
the  elements."  In  other  places  the  dwellings,  generally 
described  as  magnificent,  are  said  to  be  "  given  by  God," 


SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.      113 

"prepared  by  the  spirit,"  &c.  But  when  the  spirit  of 
the  intelligent  A.  A.  Ballou  speaks  by  the  mouth  of  the 
brilliant  improvisatrice  and  orator,  CoraL.  V.  Richmond, 
we  are  told  that  there  is  really  no  need  of  house  or  home 
at  all  over  there,  and  that  in  fact  the  only  things  that 
can  be  likened  to  them  are  but  states.  Thus,  on  page 
219  is  the  following:  "  'A  house  not  made  with  hands, 
eternal  in  the  heavens.'  This  quotation  best  describes 
a  spirit  habitation.  Locality  with  reference  to  the 
astronomical  or  atmospheric  condition  is  not  essential. 
The  house  or  home  of  the  spirit  must  be  essentially 
composed  of  the  substance  surrounding  the  spirit,  and 
must  be  in  the  locality  of  the  spirit's  usefulness  or 
labor.  As  heat  and  cold,  winter  and  summer,  poverty 
and  riches,  starvation  and  excess,  changes  of  every 
physical  kind,  have  no  effect  upon  the  spirit  ;  as  the 
spirit  does  not  require  to  be  protected  against  the  sun's 
rays  or  the  wintry  frosts  and  tempests;  so  our  habita- 
tions are  composed  of  just  such  substances,  and  are  in 
just  such  localities  as  our  spiritual  necessities  demand. 
What  are  those?  Activity.  The  mind  never  sleeps;  the 
spirit  never  ceases  to  act.  Therefore  we  are  not  in  need 
of  a  fixed  habitation  where  we  shall  lay  off  the  burthens 
of  material  cares,  and  rest  or  sleep  as  mortals  do.  I 
speak  only  for  myself.  Another  of  our  spiritual  necessi- 
ties is  the  existence  and  presence  of  those  for  whom 
we  have  an  affection.  Our  habitations,  therefore,  are 
largely  our  affections.  We  live  in  those  ;  they  form 
the  atmosphere  surrounding  us.  That  atmosphere 
takes  shape  of  beauty,  of  variety,  of  light  and  shade, 
of  architectural  proportion,  of  art,  of  color,  of  line  of 
form,  according  to  our  affections.  Whatever  there  is 
of  edifice  or  picture,  of  art  or  landscape  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  our  home,  is  the  result  of  our  lives,  of  our 
endeavor,  of  the  action  and  thought  that  makes  up  our 
existence."  On  page  221  the  same  spirit  continues: 
"  In  other  words,  to  bring  this  statement  within  a  com- 


114  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

pact   and    comprehensive    form,    that    existence    called 
objective    on   earth    has   no   reality  in  spirit  life."     In 
which    is    flatly   contradicted    John    Knowles,    who,   on 
page   196,  says:  "spirit  homes  are  as  much  objective 
and  as  substantially  real  as  are  yours  to  you,  while  that 
existence  called  subjective  on  earth  is  the  objective  in 
spirit."       "Houses    and    lands,    gardens    and    flowers, 
organic  life  in  every  variety  become  the  subjective  with 
us.     We  have  them  if  our  affections  require  them;  we 
have  them  not  if  our  thoughts  are  beyond,  or  engaged 
in  other   directions."     "There   is  no  organic    growth, 
animal  or  vegetable  life,  in  high  spiritual  existence.     By 
organic  I  mean  generic  physical  growth.     Every  form  of 
beauty,  every  bird,  tree,  flower,  landscape,  temple,  is  the 
result  of  some  immediate  action  of  mind,  or  intelligence, 
upon  the  atmosphere;  and  upon  the  particles  composing 
that  atmosphere  of  spirit  life  are  the  living  pictures  of 
the  minds  inhabiting  that  existence.     They  are  not  of 
themselves  separate  and  apart  from  human   entities  as 
birds  and  flowers  and  trees  are  on  earth,  seeming  to  ex- 
ist, whether  man  ever  beheld  them  or  not."    But  another 
authority,  on  page  245,  comes  to  Mr.   Ballou's  support 
as  follows:   "Neither  do  we  perceive  any  heat  from  the 
fire,  or  any  cold    from  the    frost."       Another    still,   an 
English  physician,  on  page   138,   says:     "We   have  no 
vicissitudes  of  climate,  no  uncleanness,  no  noxious  in- 
sects or  animals,  no  fear  of  thieves.     We  have  no  need 
of  fires,  nor  do  we  require   to  cook   our  food.     Other 
spirits  on  lower  planes  may."    On  page  176  is  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  home  of  King  Edgar  Atheling,  which  reads: 
"There   do   not  seem  to  be  any  places   set    apart    for 
sleeping  or  eating;    the  first   being  to   them   a  dreamy 
reverie,  and  their  substance  mainly  derived  from  inhala- 
tion, of  which  the  refuse  is  cast  off  through  the  pores  of 
the  skin  by  insensible  excretion."     Elsewhere  another 
tells  that  spirits  do  not  sleep.     To  sum  up:  dwellings 
in   the  spiritual  world  are,  made  by  mechanical  work. 


SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.      115 

and  not  from  spirit  substance  by  will-power  (this  ac- 
cording to  two  accounts) — are  prepared  by  the  angels 
for  us  while  we  live — spring  into  being  at  will — when 
built  by  hand-work  go  up  so  rapidly  that  the  labor  must 
amount  to  nothing, — are  not  made  with  hands,  but  by 
pure  thoughts  and  good  actions  —  are  made  uncon- 
sciously by  those  who  are  to  occupy  them,  while  yet  in 
earth-life,  and,  again,  are  truly  homes  not  made  with 
hands — are  given  by  God — are  ' '  prepared  "  by  the  spirit — 
are  not  needed  at  all,  since  weather  cannot  affect  a  spirit, 
unless  it  be  to  represent  his  states — are  subjective,  and 
not  objective,  that  is  to  say,  are  mere  mental  phenomena, 
as  homes  on  earth  are  not. 

Notwithstanding  what  is  said  to  the  contrary  we  are 
free  to  believe  that  no  expenditure  of  labor  is  needed  in 
the  construction  of  the  homes,  since,  according  to  one 
witness,  hand-work  is  miraculously  effective,  running  up 
a  story  of  a  large  building  while  a  passer-by  stops  to  look 
on,  and  according  to  another,  some  spirits  have  such 
control  over  matter  as  to  be  able  to  create  a  house  by  a 
mere  wish,  and  these  will  surely  never  refuse  to  build 
houses  for  others  not  so  endowed.  It  must  be  a  pleas- 
ure for  them  to  do  so,  and  as  easy  as  for  earthlings  to 
blow  soap-bubbles. 

Clothing. 

That  the  reader  may  judge  if  the  stories  told  of  the 
clothes  worn  by  spirits,  their  food,  their  occupations  and 
modes  of  transporting  passengers  and  freight  are  likely 
stories,  and,  incidentally,  how  far  they  agree  one  with 
another,  here  are  given  a  few  further  quotations  from 
Peebles,  each  quotation  preceded  by  the  number  of  its 
page.  On  page  62  we  read:  "In  shape  and  appearance 
spiritual  vestures  correspond  to  the  spirit's  taste  and  cus- 
tom when  upon  earth.  The  Quaker  wears  at  first  a  plain 
dress.  The  Roman,  the  toga.  The  Oriental,  the  grace- 
ful robe.     But  in  ethereality  of  texture,  garments  corre- 


116  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

spond  to  the  moral  States  of  the  individual."  (>z\  *'The 
first  garments  worn  in  spirit  life  are  gifts  of  love.  It  is 
so  with  infants  on  earth.  In  the  higher  heavens  robes 
and  angel  vestures  are  woven  by  will-power,  through 
skilful  hands,  and  woven  almost  in  the  twinkling  of  an 
eye."  92 :  "I  saw  a  lady  not  long  in  the  spirit  life,  en- 
gaged in  needle-work.  She  had  her  spirit  fabric  of  deli- 
cate texture,  her  spirit  thread  and  needle.  On  earth  she 
was  a  seamstress."  132:  A  Boston  tailor  is  asked  the 
question:  "Was  your  external  clothing  prepared  for 
you?"  and  answers:  "It  was,  and  brought  to  me  and 
put  on  me,  when  I  first  escaped  from  the  physical  tene- 
ment." And  to  the  question:  "  Did  this  spiritual  cloth- 
ing correspond  to  the  spiritual  status  of  your  spiritual 
life?"  he  answered:  "I  afterwards  perceived  that  it 
did,  although  I  had  no  consciousness  of  this  correspond- 
ence at  the  time."  140:  "My  spirit-clothing  is  the 
outgrowth  of  my  mental  states.  It  forms  itself  on  my 
body,  and  is  instantaneously  in  form  according  as  my 
mind  may  vary  its  emotions,  or  frame  of  thought." 
"My  clothing  is  of  silk,  velvet,  lace,  cloth  of  gold  (or 
what  would  seem  so  to  clairvoyants  of  earth),  gauzy 
muslins,  or  simply  white  materials  neither  thick  nor 
thin."  "  In  the  highest  heavens  angels  are  clothed 
upon  with  innocence,  and  are  garmentless;  but  descend- 
ing to  lower  spheres  on  acts  of  beneficence,  appear 
clothed."  "Will  is  the  creator."  164:  "Spirits  that 
have  just  left  their  bodies  appear  clothed  much  as  they 
were  in  their  mortal  form,  while  ancient  and  holier 
spirits  are  clad  in  celestial  attire,  shining  as  the  sun.  ' 
173:  "My  garments  were  also  prepared,  and  they  cor- 
responded with  my  taste,  and,  as  I  afterwards  learned, 
with  my  moral  status."  216:  "  My  clothing  was  drapery ; 
I  was  conscious  of  that.  It  did  not  take  the  stereotyped 
form  of  earthly  raiment;  but  I  thought  little  of  it,  ex- 
cepting that  when  a  thought  of  delight  pervaded  the 
mind  on  each  new  recognition  of  a  spirit  friend,  there 


SPIRITUAL   WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.      117 

would  be  a  vibration  throughout  the  whole  frame  which 
communicated  itself  to  the  drapery  and  to  the  atmosphere 
around  me.  That  our  friends  are  prepared  to  receive  us 
in  spirit  life  is  certain;  but  spirit  clothing,  that  which 
they  adorn  us  with,  that  which  is  seen  by  many  spirits 
(clairvoyants)  in  the  form  of  raiment,  is  in  reality  their 
affections  manifesting  themselves  upon  the  atmosphere 
that,  like  a  shining  light,  surrounds  us;  and  as  our  rai- 
ment is  woven,  not  of  material  fabric,  but  of  the  aggre- 
gation of  spiritual  substances,  so  the  thought  and  sym- 
pathy of  our  friends  adorn  us;  we  wear  it  as  a  shining 
raiment;  atmosphere  illumines  and  surrounds  us;  we  are 
clothed  in  atmospheres."  260:  "  Our  robes  are  the  prod- 
uct of  our  lives,  sadly,  badly  woven  sometimes."  Thus 
we  see  that  spirits'  clothing  is  sometimes  the  gift  of  love, 
sometimes  woven  by  will-power,  sometimes  "prepared," 
how  or  by  whom  not  being  stated,  is  sometimes  an  out- 
growth of  mental  states,  taking  form  instantaneously,  is 
sometimes  nothing  but  the  affections  of  the  friends  who 
bestow  it,  sometimes,  in  some  way,  the  product  of  our 
moral  deportment  in  earth-life,  and,  finally,  in  the  case 
of  angels,  there  is  no  clothing  at  all.  Hand-work  is 
hardly  hinted  at,  and  the  conclusion  must  be  that  there 
is  no  work  done  on  it  of  any  kind,  and  the  newly-arrived 
lady  seamstress  of  page  92  was  only  doing  a  little  repair- 
ing from  force  of  habit.  Except  just  after  death,  it  is  also 
plainly  enough  revealed  that  the  clothing  of  each  spirit 
is  the  expression  of  his  character,  thoughts  and  feelings, 
in  short  of  his  "  states,"  which  shows  that  Swedenborg's 
doctrine  of  correspondences  is  accepted  by  the  spirits  as 
to  clothing  as  well  as  dwellings.  In  fact  Swedenborg  is 
often  quoted  by  them,  though  sometimes  with  partial 
dissent,  and  it  is  stated  in  one  place  that  he  is  installed 
as  a  teacher  of  spiritual  analogy  in  some  one  of  the 
spiritual  spheres.  In  at  least  two  places  his  affirmation 
that  the  spiritual  world  is  a  counterpart  of  the  natural, 
is  concurred  in,  notwithstanding  both  his  spiritual  world 


118  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

and  that  of  these  spirits  are  as  different  from  the  natural 
one  as  they  are  in  most  important  respects  from  each 
other. 

Locomotion. 
On  this  pretty  important  subject  we  have,  page  141 : 
"A  spirit  may  be  conveyed  with  the  rapidity  almost  of 
thought  through  space,  according  to  the  eagerness  of 
his  desire;  or  he  may  leisurely  convey  himself  by  walk- 
ing, by  floating,  or  by  sailing  on  a  boat;  or,  if  on  land, 
by  a  kind  of  carriage  propelled  by  sails.  All  these  modes 
of  conveyance  correspond  to  some  frame  of  mind. 
Spirits  are  also  seen  upon  horses  and  in  chariots. "  On 
page  150  another  account  mentions  "chariots,  seem- 
ingly of  fire,"  and  also  says:  "elegant  vehicles,  drawn 
by  horsfis  and  other  kinds  of  graceful  animals,  here,  as 
on  earth,  are  subservient  to  the  spirit's  will."  Another, 
on  page  208,  says:  "There  are  gondolas,  palanquins, 
carriages  and  chariots  in  my  sphere  of  existence.  Some 
would  go  from  this  place  to  London  in  half  an  hour; 
others  would  go  almost  like  the  lightning's  flash."  On 
page  72  mention  is  made  of  lakes  with  vessels  and  ponds 
with  boats  on  them,  also  of  boats  that  ply  backwards 
and  forwards,  on  the  lakes,  and  on  page  73,  that  those  of 
the  Sixth  sphere  were  "  building  boats  of  a  singular 
structure,"  and  that  in  the  same  exalted  sphere  "they 
arrange  their  houses  in  groups,  and  have  a  kind  of  rail- 
road to  go  from  one  group  to  the  other;  moreover,  that 
they  "traverse  the  ether  spaces  in  aerial  cars."  But 
quite  the  contrary  of  all  this,  the  spirit  of  Mrs.  Kiddle 
(the  wife  of  a  distinguished  Spiritualist  who,  because  he 
was  a  Spiritualist,  was  expelled  from  the  chief  control  of 
the  public  schools  of  New  York  City,  to  the  immense 
and  immediate  injury  of  schools,  teachers  and  pupils), 
says,  on  page  260:  "We  need  no  vehicles  since  the  Lord 
has  given  us  almost  unlimited  motion."  This  last  might 
account  for  the  absence  of  steam  vessels  and  excuse  the 


SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.      119 

omission  of  the  locomotive  from  spiritual  locomotion 
were  it  not  for  the  sail  boats,  sail  carriages,  fiery  chari- 
ots, common  chariots,  elegant  vehicles  drawn  by  horses 
and  other  graceful  animals,  gondolas,  palanquins,  aerial 
cars,  &c,,  that  are  mentioned.  Here,  as  where  clothing 
and  houses  are  described,  the  land  and  water  vehicles 
sometimes  used  by  spirits  represent  their  states  and  by 
analogy  may  be  supposed  to  come  as  emanations  or  as 
representing  the  moods  for  the  time  being  of  those  who 
go  in  them,  that  is,  as  produced  by  the  same  will-power 
which  enables  them  to  go  where  they  please  quick  as 
lightning  without  any  conveyance.  At  any  rate  we  may 
presume  that  carriage-making  and  boat-building  are  car- 
ried on  in  the  same  easy  and  expeditious  manner  as 
clothes  are  made  and  houses  erected,  so  that  the  pro- 
duction of  them  does  not  amount  to  an  occupation. 
Nothing  is  said  about  transportation  of  freight  or  bag- 
gage, or  commerce  in  any  commodities;  which  suggests 
the  subject  of 

Food. 

In  the  upper  spheres  the  sustenance  of  the  spirits  is, 
page  176,  "  chiefly  derived  from  inhalation,  of  which  the 
refuse  is  cast  off  through  the  pores  of  the  skin  by  insen- 
sible excretion  ";  also,  page  75,  in  those  high  places  and 
states  food  "  is  compounded  out  of  the  elements  and  from 
etherealized  fluids,"  and  on  page  71  we  have:  "He  saw 
spirits  preparing  spiritual  food  composed  of  spiritual  ele- 
ments and  auras."  Below  those,  we  are  told  in  numerous 
places,  the  food  is  melons  and  delicious  fruits,  heavenly 
manna  and  nuts.  Nothing  is  said  of  any  expenditure  of 
labor  in  cultivating  the  fruits;  they  may  grow  wild,  or 
in  orchards  and  gardens,  but  the  probabilities  are  in 
favor  of  will-power  such  as  produces  the  dwellings  and 
clothing,  since  we  have  thus  far  seen  that  spirits,  like  us 
in  the  flesh,  will  do  no  more  work  than  they  can  help,  and 
are  told  on  page    136,  that  it  is  possible  to  produce  a 


130  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

bower  of  flowers  by  that  same  power,  and  if  flowers, 
then  of  course  fruit.  Certainly  it  is  a  happy  arrange- 
ment, in  the  interest  of  idleness,  to  make  melons,  fruits 
and  nuts  serve  for  food,  since  they  need  cooking  no  more 
than  we  can  suppose  heavenly  manna  does.  As  to  flesh, 
fish  and  fowl,  they  seem  to  be  allowed  the  American 
Indians,  but  no  others,  nor  are  grains  or  vegetables  of 
any  kind  anywhere  mentioned.  And  what  has  just  been 
said  of  food,  as  well  as  what  went  before  relating  to 
clothing,  would  show  there  is  no  need  in  spirit-land  to 
transport  either  freight  or  baggage,  and  so  the  absence 
of  railroads,  steamboats  and  steamships  from  the  list 
given  of  means  of  locomotion  is  accounted  for. 

Thus  between  old  ancestor  worship  and  modern  Spirit- 
ualism there  is  this  most  important  difference,  that  in  the 
first  the  dead  must  be  fed  by  the  living,  while  in  the 
other  they  feed  themselves. 

Occupations. 

Swedenborg,  as  we  have  seen,  makes  the  general 
statement  that  angels  and  spirits  are  very  busy.  Just 
so  Peebles'  spirits  report  that  they  "  are  never  idle,"  but 
carefully  avoid  giving  any  details  of  their  employment, 
as,  for  instance,  when  on  page  i6i  the  question  is  directly 
put,  "How  do  spirits  occupy  their  time,  and  what  are 
the  leading  loves  in  your  sphere  ?"  a  Quaker  tells  how 
his  brother  painted  pictures  to  decorate  the  walls  of  a 
house  (was  not  Quaker  Benjamin  West  turned  out  of  the 
church  for  painting  pictures?),  and  tells  absolutely  noth- 
ing more,  neither  concerning  how  spirits  occupy  their 
time,  nor  what  are  their  leading  loves,  in  a  long  answer 
that  covers  two  pages  octavo.  And  to  this  even  more 
searching  interrogatory,  page  91 :  "  You  deal  too  much, 
— pardon  me, — in  generalities.  Be  more  pointed;  tell 
me  of  one  scene  you  have  observed — one  act  that  you 
have  done  to-day  as  a  spirit?"  All  the  reply  that  came 
was  what  has  been  before  substantially  quoted  concern- 


SPIRITUAL   WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.      121 

ing  the  spirit  seamstress,  and  her  spiritual  needle  and 
thread.  A  book  made  up  of  carefully  selected  revela- 
tions and  that  bears  on  its  cover  the  title,  "  Our  homes 
and  our  employments  hereafter,"  and  the  first  words 
of  whose  preface  are:  "  Give  us  details  " — quite  omits, 
save  in  the  two  very  small  ones  just  quoted,  any  account 
of  anything  that  will  answer  to  the  term  industry. 
Houses,  clothes,  vehicles  and  food  come  without  it. 
All  industrial  occupation  being  absent,  what  then  are 
"  our  employments  hereafter,"  of  which  revelations  in 
detail  are  promised  in  the  one  hundred  communications 
tendered  by  Dr.  Peebles?  In  his  summarizing  Chapter 
21,  headed  "The  general  teachings  of  the  spirits,"  he 
himself  quite  forgets  through  all  its  sixteen  octavo  pages 
to  even  name  houses,  clothes,  food,  locomotion  or  any 
industrial  occupations,  such  as  keep  men  out  of  mischief 
in  the  natural  world,  or  to  give  any  hint  of  labor  per- 
formed, save  what  is  contained  in  two  brief  passages  on 
page  279,  which  read  thus:  "  They  teach  that  the  life  of 
the  spirits  enter  on  after  death  is  a  sphere  of  struggle 
and  moral  conquest" — "  that  every  moral  altitude  attained 
is  a  victory  for  the  soul,  purchased  by  self-denial,  by 
aspiration,  by  persistent  effort,  and  holy  endeavor." 
*'  They  teach  that  spirit  life  is  an  active  life,  a  progress- 
ive life,  with  schools  and  lyceums,  and  museums  and 
universities." 

These  generalities  the  reader  of  the  book  is  allowed 
to  fill  in  with  such  details  as  his  imagination  may  supply, 
and  he  is  also  left  to  conjecture  as  he  can  how  far  the 
only  occupations  the  spirits  specify,  namely,  rearing  chil- 
dren, instructing  the  ignorant,  reforming  the  wicked  and 
guarding  mortals  on  earth,  can  fill  up  the  time,  or  rather 
the  eternity,  of  the  vast  population.  It  looks  as  if  those 
whom  Peebles  in  his  preface  implored  to  "give  details 
and  not  generalities  and  vain  imaginings,"  had  so  suc- 
cessfully befogged  the  subject  and  him  as  to  make  him 
quite  lose  sight  of  the  object  of  his  book,  and  left  him  to 


122  THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A 

wind  up  with  a  mere  gush  of  religionism  unwarranted  by 
the  context.  How  is  it  that  whatever  revelation,  bib- 
lical or  other,  has  been  given  as  coming  from  another 
world  has  been  minute  enough  in  respect  to  things  of 
this  one,  as  to  morality,  ritual,  economics,  proprieties, 
and  even  as  to  architecture,  vestments  and  interior  dec- 
oration, but  vague  unto  nothingness  as  to  what  is  and 
what  is  done  in  that  other — voluminous  and  specific  as  to 
what  we  are  familiar  with;  blank  as  to  what  we  are  not? 

In  effect  the  spiritual  world  of  our  Spiritualists,  like 
that  of  Swedenborg's,  is  a  world  of  idlers.  In  the  case 
of  mere  bodiless  souls  there  would  be  no  question  of 
tediousness,  and  the  problem  how  such  immortals  could 
kill  time  need  not  trouble  us.  But  in  these  spiritual 
worlds  the  inhabitants  are  complete  and  entire  men, 
beings  contrived  for  labor,  whose  life  here  chiefly  con- 
sists in  working  for  the  means  to  live  it.  Nature  abhors 
inaction,  as  she  does  any  other  vacuity.  Human  nature 
as  we  know  it  would  render  a  heaven  full  of  idlers  a 
thing  beyond  imagining  and  only  dreamable  by  a  tired 
worker  here  below  while  his  fatigue  is  on.  It  is  impos- 
sible that  such  should  be  a  happy  world. 

For  the  manifold  errors,  omissions,  inconsistencies  and 
contradictions  in  the  volume  of  Dr.  Peebles  contained  he 
seems  to  have  seen  the  need  of  something  of  excuse  or 
palliation,  and  at  the  close  of  his  work,  page  277,  gives 
the  best  he  can,  which  is  as  follows:  "Just  imagine  sev- 
eral diverse  characters  reaching  our  shores  from  London, 
for  the  purpose  of  instructing  us  in  the  realities — the 
shame  and  the  glory  of  London  life.  These  shall  embody 
patricians  and  plebeians,  prince  and  peasant,  judge  and 
criminal,  schoolman,  tyro,  scientist  and  shop-keeper,  and 
other  types  of  castes  and  conditions.  It  is  plain  enough 
that  these  persons,  seeing  London  with  different  eyes, 
and  while  perhaps  strictly  honest  would  strangely  differ 
in  their  descriptions.  What  would  the  novice  know  of 
the  poet's  library?      And  what  conception  could  the  poor 


SPIRITUAL   WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED.      123 

day-toiler  give  us  of  the  international  questions  often 
discussed  in  Parliament,  or  in  the  private  councils  of 
court  life?  And  yet  each  of  these  characters  would  give 
substantially  the  same  description  of  those  features  of 
London  life  accessible  to  common  observation — such  as 
the  parks  and  gardens,  the  course  of  the  Thames,  the 
dust  and  the  fogs  during  certain  seasons.  And  so  spirits 
agree  in  regard  to  the  general  verities  pertaining  to  spirit 
life — agree  that  there  are  landscapes  and  flowers,  trees 
and  running  streams,  houses  and  gardens,  magnificent 
mountains  and  dismal  lowlands,  libraries  and  pictures, 
sympathies  and  antipathies,  joys  and  sufferings,  harmony 
and  jarring  discords."  But  the  hundred  selected  spirits 
by  no  means  substantially  agree  about  anything,  but  dis- 
agree as  widely  as  the  Londoners  would  if  they  described 
their  city  as  being  built  by  will-power — not  by  will- 
power— of  spirit  substance — not  of  spirit  substance — by 
vibrations  which  go  forth  into  the  atmosphere  from  hearts 
and  lives — by  will-power  of  the  kind  that  subdues  evil — 
by  people  who  have  gained  so  complete  a  victory  over 
matter  that  they  can  cause  habitations  to  spring  up  at 
will,  which  afterwards,  when  no  longer  needed,  cease  to 
exist — by  hand-work,  but  of  so  expert  a  kind  that  a 
whole  story  of  a  large  building  is  run  up  while  a  passer- 
by stops  to  look  on — not  by  hand,  but  by  pure  thoughts 
and  good  actions — somehow  constructed  while  its  citi- 
zens were  in  process  of  gestation,  so  as  to  be  ready  for 
them  as  soon  as  they  were  born — local  and  real,  but  built 
by  its  inhabitants  unconsciously  to  themselves — or  of  a 
given  house  as — not  made  with  hands,  but  by  the  owner 
himself  in  some  way  kept  to  himself — not  local  at  all,  but 
coming  at  need  to  any  locality — immediately  improvised 
from  the  elements — not  built  at  all,  but  given  by  God — 
prepared  by  the  spirits — not  needed  at  all,  nor  having 
locality, — made  out  of  a  sort  of  atmosphere  that  emanates 
from  the  intended  occupants  and  which  takes  shape  ac- 
cording to  their  affections.     It  is  the  same  selected  body 


124      SPIRITUAL    WORLD  FURTHER  CONSIDERED. 

of  witnesses  who  tell  us,  concerning  the  clothing  of  the 
spirits,  that  it  too  comes  in  all  the  different  ways,  and 
is  of  all  the  widely  different  materials  and  makes  just 
stated.  It  is  they  too  who,  in  telling  how  spirits  accom- 
plish locomotion  in  that  world  the  counterpart  of  this, 
omit  the  rail  and  engine  and  say  nothing  of  steam-vessels, 
or  of  electrical  motors. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

RELIGION    IN    GENERAL. 

This  word  of  manifold  definition  may  conveniently  be 
taken  as  meaning  the  cultivation  of  relations  with  the 
supernatural,  understanding  by  this  last  the  hidden  part 
of  the  natural.  In  early  times  and  while  as  yet  natural 
phenomena,  such  as  the  movements  of  heavenly  bodies 
and  the  play  of  elemental  forces,  were  little  understood, 
these  served  as  a  basis  for  religion  as  much  as  those  others 
the  how  and  why  of  which  remain  still  unknown,  and 
which  for  convenience  may  be  termed  supernatural  phe- 
nomena, until  science  shall  enlarge  her  borders  and  take 
them  into  her  domain,  as  they  have  always  been  in  that 
of  nature.  They  can  be  classed  as  objective  or  such  as 
are  perceived  as  being  outside  of  the  perceiver,  and  sub- 
jective or  such  as  are  perceived  as  being  within  him. 

Objective  phenomena  are  the  apparition  of  the  double 
and  like  appeals  to  the  outer  senses,  such  as  seem  to  con- 
firm and  support  ancestor  worship,  and  are  adapted  to 
the  lowest  order  of  minds  because  adapted  to  all  minds. 
Coming  into  evidence  early  they  did  their  work  early, 
with  belief  of  soul  and  its  immortality  as  result.  The  like 
objective  phenomena  served  to  support  beliefs  in  the 
lower  order  of  gods. 

But  to  the  conception  of  God  that  arose  in  the  Chinese, 
Greelj  and  Aryan  minds  in  their  best  estate,  neither  nat- 
ural nor  supernatural  phenomena  of  the  objective  sort 
could  have  been  the  support.  Such  support  could  have 
been  no  other  than  those  subjective  intuitions  which 
come  to  the  solitary  sage  or  saint  in  contemplative  quie- 


126  RELIGION  IN  GENERAL. 

tude  impossible  in  very  rude  times,  and  requiring  a  per- 
fected language  to  formulate.  Though  the  god  thus 
coming  into  belief  was  in  fact  merely  the  first  principle 
in  nature,  it  has  been  often  invested  with  mundane  quali- 
ties rendering  it  an  object  of  love  and  worship,  which 
fitly  enough  belong  to  the  anthropomorphic  ones  which 
preceded  it,  but  hardly  to  a  metaphysical  conception,  which 
it  is,  as  instanced  by  the  invocation  of  Marcus  Aurelius 
to  the  World,  running  thus:  "O  world  I  love  that  which 
thou  lovest.  Give  to  me  what  thou  wilt;  take  from  me 
what  thou  wilt.  Whatever  pleases  thee  pleases  me.  All 
comes  from  thee;  all  is  in  thee  ;  all  returns  to  thee." 

This  may  be  because,  although  it  is  a  purely  philo- 
sophical conception,  it  did  not  come  by  the  way  of  phi- 
losophy, but  of  revelation,  that  is  of  ecstatic  intuition, 
Chinese,  Hindu  and  Neoplatonic  sages  alike  insisting  on 
this,  and  declaring  that  such  truth  cannot  be  attained  to 
either  by  books  or  study ;  and  thus  coming  it  has  the  halo 
of  supernatural  illumination,  forever  accepted  as  guaranty 
of  truth  and  forever  inducing  exaltation  and  fervor.  Now 
such  ecstatic  intuition  is  as  much  a  miracle  as  a  spectre 
is,  and  thus  the  latest  stage  in  religious  evolution,  belief 
in  a  philosophical  god,  like  the  first  stage,  belief  in  an 
immortal  soul,  has  been  attained  through  supernatural 
experiences;  and  these  experiences  being  themselves 
actualities,  whether  truly  or  erroneously  interpreted,  re- 
ligion has  a  basis  of  fact,  therefore  a  scientific  basis,  and 
we  need  not  look  for  such  in  any  vague  longings  of  the 
human  heart  arising  none  knows  how. 

The  supernatural  experiences  in  question  having  been 
everywhere  the  same,  the  various  religions  of  the  world 
may  fairly  be  considered  as  having  spontaneously  arisen 
each  on  its  own  ground,  save  where  the  contrary  is 
proved,  or  is  fairly  deducible,  in  the  case  of  a  given  rite 
or  dogma.  The  arising  of  modern  Spiritualism  in  America 
and  other  countries  where  nothing  was  known  of  ances- 
tor worship,  is  a  case  of  a  spontaneously  originating,  or 


RELIGION  IN  GENERAL.  127 

reoriginating  cult,  Spiritualism  being,  as  said  before,  pre- 
cisely ancestor  worship  with  sacrifice  omitted. 

Beliefs.,  Natural  atid  Institutional. 

God  and  soul  having  thus  established  themselves  in 
human  belief,  human  ingenuity,stirred  by  human  motives, 
set  to  work  to  build  on  it.  Here  is  the  province  of 
speculation,  fabrication,  creed  and  ritual,  orthodoxy, 
authority  and  priest-craft,  in  fine,  of  the  Church.  An- 
cestor worship,  simple  in  its  origin  and  by  virtue  of 
its  simplicity  able  to  do  without  priest  or  Church,  has 
through  all  changes  in  other  things  kept  its  original 
character.  And  so,  too,  when  the  Hindu  sets  about  find- 
ing his  one  only  god  and  by  junction  with  it  obtaining 
release  from  re  -  birth,  he  goes  to  the  woods  and  not 
to  the  temple,  and  there  all  by  himself  and  for  himself 
works  out  his  own  salvation;  and  obtains  with  that 
release,  liberation  also  from  all  religious  observance 
whatever,  even  from  caste.  And  despite  the  efforts  of 
the  priesthood  to  envelop  and  absorb  saints  and  sages 
and  appropriate  their  merit,  yoga  practice  under  what- 
ever name  or  guise  remains  essentially  the  same  it 
always  was.  Should  every  religion  that  to-day  exists  dis- 
appear to-morrow  and  be  lost  from  memory  too,  yet  from 
elements  inherent  in  the  nature  of  man,  he  will  again 
evolve  a  soul  and  a  god,  some  sort  of  a  god  and  some 
mode  of  immortality,  and  human  nature  remaining  no 
better  than  hitherto,  religions  of  widely  varying  sorts 
will  arise  again  from  these. 

Subjective  yoga  is  at  this  very  time  re-originating  in 
America,  as  objective  ancestor  worship  did  a  half  cent- 
ury ago.  Neither  of  them  have  needed  to  be  imported; 
and  both  are  plainly  now  the  same  they  always  were,  as 
to  phenomena.  The  doubles  seen  in  ancient  Egypt  and 
the  ghosts  many  times  chased  and  sometimes  found  by 
the  Society  of  Psychic  Research  of  modern  London  are 
essentially  alike.     And  the  method  by  which  the  Patri- 


128  RELIGION  IN  GENERAL. 

arch  Isaac  "  meditating  at  twilight  "  got  his  instructions 
from  Jehovah,  that  by  which  the  Hindu  hermit  attains 
to  conscious  one-ness  with  Brahman,  and  that  by  which 
the  possible  "  healer  "  now  seeks  development  were  and 
are  one  and  the  same,  namely,  mental  concentration. 
The  subjective  phenomena  equally  with  the  objective 
are  obtainable  at  first  hand,  and  in  their  presence  man 
stands  as  near  to  the  supernatural — to  the  unknown 
causes  of  known  effects — as  is  possible  to  him;  all  that 
comes  after  these  is  structure  of  his  own  fabrication. 

The  evolution  of  religious  ideas  has  ever  been  hampered 
and  hoppled  by  the  dogma  pervading  all  religions  which 
accords  the  highest  authority  to  the  oldest  revelations, 
compelling  Hindu  innovators  to  make  their  improved  doc- 
trines conform  to  the  Upanishads  and  Vedic  hymns,  and 
Christian  reformers  to  follow  literally  the  whole  Bible 
from  Genesis  to  Revelations,  or  else  wrest  and  wrench  its 
meaning  to  their  purpose.  The  result  of  thus  chaining 
modern  wisdom  to  ancient  ignorance  has  given  theologians 
a  world  of  trouble,  but  the  way  in  which  those  of  India 
contrived  to  adapt  the  old  ancestor  worship  which  the 
people  would  not  give  up,  and  which,  with  its  supernat- 
ural backing,  would  not  let  itself  be  given  up,  is  a  speci- 
men of  skill  worthy  of  applause  in  any  ecumenical  council. 
Ancestor  worship  in  its  primitive  form  has  no  other  des- 
tiny for  the  soul  after  death  than  the  world  of  spirits. 
This  was  simple  enough,  but  when  the  doctrine  of  re- 
incarnation came  to  prevail  the  sojourn  in  that  world  had 
to  be  interrupted  from  time  to  time  to  permit  of  returns 
to  earth;  subject  to  such  interruptious,  the  sojourn  was 
perpetual,  and  the  spiritual  world  still  remained  the  final 
home  of  man.  But  later,  and  when  it  was  discovered 
that  that  final  home  was  to  be  in  the  bosom  of  Brahman, 
that  re-incarnation  was  an  evil,  because  all  earthly  exist- 
ence was  evil,  and  wise  Hindus  began  to  seek  release 
from  it  through  yoga  practice,  the  old  and  new  beliefs 
were  seen  to  be  altogether  incompatible.    To  escape  from 


RELIGION  IN  GENERAL.  129 

these  inconsistencies — to  reconcile  so  they  could  live  to- 
gether the  three  doctrines  of  uninterrupted  life  in  a  world 
of  spirits,  life  there  interrupted  by  occasional  returns  to 
earth,  and  reabsorption  in  the  creative  principle — the 
term  of  sojourn  in  that  world  was  cut  short  by  definite 
limitations  and  the  world  itself  divided  into  two,  the  one 
being,  as  before  has  been  mentioned,  the  land  of  the 
fathers  where  the  soul  of  a  good  man  went  on  a  vacation 
accorded  as  a  reward  of  merit  acquired  by  religious  ob- 
servances and  good  deeds  to  his  fellows,  for  a  term  of 
time  proportioned  to  that  merit,  to  end  in  another  re-in- 
carnation, and  the  other  being  the  land  of  the  gods,  attain- 
able by  yoga  practice  which  had  failed  to  carry  the  prac- 
ticer  quite  up  to  Brahman,  so  that  when,  as  was  often  the 
case,  death  overtook  him  while  he  was  incompletely  de- 
veloped, and  yet  was  too  much  a  god  to  come  back  to 
earth  again  as  a  man.  To  suit  such  cases  the  other  part 
of  the  world  of  spirits  was  appropriated  to  the  use  of  such 
demi-gods  demi-men,  where  they  could  tarry  and  resume 
and  carry  on  to  completion  the  work  of  self-deliverance. 
Thus  adroitly  was  ineradicable  ancestor  worship  not  only 
reconciled  with  re-incarnation  and  its  attendant  Karma 
and  with  Yoga,  but  made  to  serve  the  uses  of  each. 

This  toleration  by  Hinduism  in  its  perfected  state  of 
the  primeval  ancestor  worship  in  which  it  had  birth  is 
justified  by  excellent  results  in  moral  guidance  and 
spiritual  comfort  for  the  body  of  the  people,  but  even  if 
not  by  these,  by  the  fact  that  having  a  scientific  basis  in 
those  mystical  phenomena  so  easily  obtainable  by  all,  it 
could  not  have  been  suppressed  by  any  such  means  as 
Hinduism's  tolerant  spirit  would  have  allowed  it  to  take. 
Of  course  a  like  justification  avails  for  all  other  relig- 
ions, that  have  tolerated  it.  Again  Hinduism  stands 
acquitted  of  absurdity  in  respect  to  the  retention  in  its 
celestial  pantheon  of  myriads  of  gods  old  and  new,  and 
in  its  earthly  temples  of  the  myriads  of  idols  represent- 
ing them,  as  well  as  in  respect  to  the  enormous  accumu- 


130  RELIGION  IN  GENERAL. 

lation  of  rites  and  teachings  regarding  them,  when  it 
avows  that  all  are  but  educational  means  for  conducting 
ignorant  but  devout  believers  along  a  path  that  may  in 
time  bring  them  to  something  better — may  conduct  them 
by  the  way  of  religion  out  of  religion  and  into  a  knowl- 
edge that  dispenses  with  religion. 

Hell. 

Every  creed,  however  mild  in  the  beginning,  comes  at 
last  to  have  a  hell,  but  it  is  said  by  those  wise  in  such 
things  that  it  is  in  every  case  a  late  comer.  At  first  the 
threatening  of  mild  and  temporary  punishments  such  as 
poor  crops  and  barren  cattle  sufficed,  but  when  later  it 
became  evident  that  such  punishment  by  no  means  fol- 
lowed promptly  nor  certainly,  upon  transgressions,  there 
happened  what  always  happens  when  the  execution  of 
any  law  is  neither  summary  nor  sure;  and  the  law- 
makers resorted  to  severity  as  a  remedy  for  uncertainty. 
But  it  is  a  remedy  that  must  be  forever  ineffectual,  save 
to  make  matters  worse,  and  multiplying  offences  are 
again  followed  by  increasing  severity,  for  gods,  priests 
nor  any  tyrants  like  to  be  frustrated,  until  at  last  offend- 
ers are  no  longer  let  off  with  sufferings  which  are  merely 
incidental  afflictions  of  their  earthly  life  intensified,  but 
are  gathered  together  in  some  place  where  they  can  be 
systematically  tormented;  and  this  is  hell,  moderate  and 
temporary  at  first,  but  in  most  cases  getting  worse  and 
worse  until  it  is  roasting  hot  and  eternally  enduring. 

The  steps  by  which  such  a  result  is  reached  are  well 
shown  in  the  Chinese  "  Book  of  Rewards  and  Punish- 
ments." It  begins  with  implicitly  recognizing  the  uncer- 
tainty and  consequent  inefficacy  of  the  milder  modes  of 
discipline,  by  giving  a  series  of  accounts  of  cases  wherein 
evil-doing  had  actually  been  followed  by  loss  of  health, 
wealth,  life  and  especially  of  official  position,  in  one  gen- 
eration if  not  in  another,  all  very  specific  and  in  detail, 
with  names,  places  and  dates,  so  that  any  doubter  might 


RELIGION  IN  GENERAL.  131 

go  and  verify  the  statements.  But  after  adding  one  - 
earthly  affliction  to  another,  until  every  kind  of  mortal 
misery  was  appropriated  as  penalty  for  sin,  it  seems  to 
have  been  found  necessary  to  follow  the  sinful  soul  beyond 
the  gates  of  death  and  punish  it  there  in  the  way  most 
appropriate  to  souls,  namely,  by  making  it  pass  through 
bodies  of  beasts,  and  that  failing,  through  those  of  de- 
mons. Then,  following  the  failure  of  even  these,  came 
imprisonment  in  Hell.  Then  Hell,  having  exhausted  its 
terrors  in  vain,  the  whole  series  of  inflictions  that  pre- 
ceded it  were  added  to  it  in  one  comprehensive  cumulative 
sentence,  and  every  torment  bodies  or  souls  could  suffer, 
or  gods  or  priests  contrive,  was  hurled  at  sin.  Could 
anything  more  be  done  to  make  men  good?  Yes;  the 
children  of  the  offender  could,  in  case  of  earthly  punish- 
ment, be  included  in  the  sentence  to  augment  its  inten- 
sity, and  it  could  be  inflicted  on  them  alone  in  case  he 
escaped,  to  increase  its  certainty  of  hitting  somewhere. 
And  this  was  accordingly  done,  and  in  China  to-day  the 
Divine  law  in  this  respect  reads  the  same  as  that  deliv- 
ered to  the  Jews,  and  to  which  Christianity  is  indebted 
for  its  dogma  of  original  sin.  But  in  the  book  of  rewards 
and  punishments,  it  is  only  the  worst  grade  of  sinners 
that  such  clumsy  justice  applies  to,  as  it  is  only  the  lowest 
of  the  populace  who  believe  in  and  fear  it;  other  grades 
it  visits  according  to  the  measure  of  their  oft'ences.  So, 
also,  did  the  Egyptian  High  Court  of  Assessors,  with  its 
weights  and  scales,  and  terms  of  transmigration  of  ad- 
justed length,  and  a  court  open  night  and  day,  like  the 
Court  of  Chancery,  that  there  might  be  no  delay  of  jus- 
tice. So,  also,  does  the  Hindu  Karma,  which  so  operates 
that  the  exact  penalty  due  every  sin  comes  automatically 
and  affixes  itself  and  stays  until  full  expiation  is  accom- 
plished. Neoplatonism  had  very  much  the  same  method. 
And  it  is  from  this  method  of  exactly  adapting  retribu- 
tion to  transgression  that  we  have  the  word  justice^  and 


132  RELIGION  IN  GENERAL. 

not  from   indiscriminate,    unmeasured,   unweighed  ven- 
geance, as  some  people  seem  to  think. 

The  mental  attitude  which  most  modern  students  of 
religion  assume  consists  in  turning  the  back  on  every 
supernatural  occurrence  or  thing.  Disporting  them- 
selves in  the  field  of  religious  evolution,  they  ignore 
and  pass  by  the  most  important  class  of  religious  facts, 
without  which  religion  would  be  an  altogether  different 
thing  from  what  it  now  is.  Now,  whether  wisely  or 
unwisely,  the  original  religion  makers  believed  in  the 
supernatural,  or  at  least  adapted  their  work  to  the  minds 
of  those  who  did,  and  their  thinking  processes  can  hardly 
be  comprehended  by  writers,  however  learned  and  acute, 
who  not  only  disbelieve  in  it  with  all  the  energy  of  their 
nature,  but  wholly  ignore  the  effect  of  belief  in  it  on 
others.  Thus  Emile  Burnouf  attributes  the  conversion 
of  Saint  Paul  to  the  remorse  that  came  over  him  after 
assisting  at  the  cruel  murder  of  Saint  Stephen,  without 
even  hinting  at  the  account  Paul  himself  gave  of  it  when 
speaking  for  himself  before  King  Agrippa,  namely,  a 
noonday  vision,  in  which,  surrounded  with  a  light  above 
the  brightness  of  the  sun,  that  caused  him  and  his  com- 
panions to  fall  to  the  earth,  a  voice  spoke  to  and  re- 
proached him  for  persecuting  Christians,  urged  him  to 
repent  and  do  works  meet  for  repentance,  and  concluded 
by  telling  him  where  to  go  and  get  initiated  in  the  mys- 
teries of  Christianity.  Other  theorizers,  in  tracing  out 
the  evolution  of  the  idea  of  one  only  god  of  the  uni- 
verse, write  as  if  they  never  had  heard  of  his  having 
come  to  any  meditating  saint  or  yogi,  in  his  ecstasy, 
filling  him  with  light  and  joy  and  a  conviction  of  divine 
reality  and  presence  too  absolute  to  be  compassed  by  the 
word  "  revelation,"  or  ever  heard  of  the  myriads  of  such 
who  have  in  all  times  spent  their  lives  in  seeking  God 
by  solitary  meditation,  and  believed  they  found  Him  with 
a  faith  that  had  all  the  force  of  absolute  knowledge. 
And  our  theorizers  write  out  their  conclusions  quite  as  if 


RELIGION  IN  GENERAL.  133 

the  idea  in  question  could  have  come  in  no  other  way 
than  the  ordinary  channels  of  thought  and  by  dint  of 
pure  ratiocination. 

The  interpretation  of  the  objective  supernatural  facts 
as  meaning  the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  interpre- 
tation of  subjective  ones  as  meaning  God,  that  have  been 
heretofore  made,  may  both  of  them  fail,  and  yet  super- 
naturalism  in  the  end,  and  by  the  light  of  better  investi- 
gation than  has  yet  been  given  it,  maybe  found  to  prove 
both  God  and  immortality,  though  of  a  kind  not  hitherto 
conceived  of,  or  it  may  be  found  to  prove  no  such  thing 
as  either.  The  world  is  not  yet  so  old  but  that  its  think- 
ers may  be  accused  of  making  mistakes.  And  we  of 
these  times  are  quite  at  liberty  to  consider  whether 
either  group  of  supernatural  phenomena  has  delivered 
its  real  message  to  mankind,   and  its  last. 

Morality  and  Religion. 

Morality,  like  hell,  which  is  sometimes  supposed  to  be 
its  foundation,  is  also  a  late-comer  into  religions,  and  into 
more  than  one  of  them  has  never  got  at  all.  The  gods 
of  old  Chaldea  expended  their  wrath  freely  on  offenders 
against  themselves,  and  had  little  or  none  left  for  offences 
of  man  against  man,  that  is  to  say,  against  morality.  The 
Shinto,  as  we  have  seen,  has  no  moral  code.  The  Chris- 
tian scheme  of  salvation  in  its  original  conception  was  a 
scheme  for  saving  offenders  from  merited  punishment, 
in  itself  an  immoral  proceeding.  The  sin  charged  up 
against  all  the  children  of  Adam  on  account  of  an  act  of 
disobedience  so  transcendently  grand  as  to  merit  the 
perpetual  roasting  with  fire  of  one  and  all  of  them  belit- 
tles into  nothingness  whatever  they  may  commit  against 
each  other  on  their  own  account,  and  so  belittles  morality. 
It  is  true  that  Jesus  taught  a  morality  claimed  to  be  as  good 
as  any  prevailing  in  his  time,  and  that  the  Ten  Command- 
ments are  good  so  far  as  they  go,  but  obedience  to  them 
both  in  every  iota  would  not  carry  a  man  one  step  nearer  to 


134  RELIGION  IN  GENERAL. 

heaven  or  further  from  hell  than  the  vilest  sinner  in  the 
world,  however  much  homilies  and  catechisms  may  insist 
on  good  works  as  an  ornamental  accomplishment.  It  is 
also  true  that  after  a  few  centuries  of  experience  had 
shown  the  demoralizing  effect  of  such  a  state  of  belief, 
the  Church  of  Rome  invented  a  purgatory,  which  it  has 
never  attempted  to  describe,  much  less  to  furnish  plans 
and  specifications  of,  and  which  fits  so  badly  into  the  sys- 
tem it  was  added  to  as  to  make  an  incomprehensible 
muddle  of  what  was  before  at  least  simple  enough.  Luther 
saved  his  church  from  such  an  incongruity  by  leaving  out 
of  it  both  purgatory  and  morality.  According  to  Sweden- 
borg  he  omitted  good  works  and  introduced  justification 
by  faith  instead,  because  he  would  not  imitate  the  Church 
of  Rome  which  had  lugged  in  good  works  late  in  time,  to 
save  a  falling  cause.  Protestantism  remains  still  without 
a  morality,  however  moral  Protestantdom  may  be.  As  a 
religion  it  lends  no  sanction  of  punishment  or  reward  to 
the  enforcement  of  good  conduct  on  the  earth,  because 
the  best  man  that  treads  it  must  go  to  hell  unless  he  ac- 
cepts Christ's  offer  of  salvation,  and  the  worst  will  go  to 
heaven  if  he  does.  Logically,  its  concern  is  with  Adam's 
immorality,  and  not  that  of  his  descendants. 

Old  Taoism  never  had  a  morality  any  more  than  it  had 
a  god.  Chuang-Tzu  in  his  exposition  of  it  makes  unceas- 
ing war  upon  Confucius,  the  greatest  of  the  world's 
moralizers,  and  persistently  sneers  at  his  "  charity  and 
duty  to  the  neighbor."  Taoism  declared  for  the  "natural 
goodness  of  the  heart  of  man,"  and  for  almost  nihilistic 
freedom  of  human  action.  It  was  a  high  magic,  and 
planed  far  above  all  terrestrial  manners  and  customs; 
even  virtue,  humanity  and  justice  were  left  below  it. 
Its  aim  was  goodness,  to  which  all  these  were  but  the 
fallible  means,  and  happiness  was  contained  in  that  good- 
ness. Beyond  question,  the  Tao-Te-King  sets  up  as 
high  a  standard  of  human  conduct  as  any  sacred  book 
extant. 


RELIGION  IN  GENERAL.  135 

Finally,  the  gentle  Eskimo,  the  best  man  in  the  world, 
is  as  godless  and  lawless  as  he  is  good. 

Religion  and  morality  ought  never  to  have  been  asso- 
ciated. Each  has  been  a  disturber  of  the  other.  They 
cannot  keep  step  together.  Religion  is  in  principle  in- 
fallible, therefore  unchangeable,  therefore  rigid,  fixed, 
unshrinkable  and  unexpansive.  Morality  (manners)  and 
ethics  (customs)  by  their  very  natures  are  things  of  times 
and  modes,  of  growth,  and  not  of  institution,  and  need 
room,  time  and  freedom  to  grow.  Religion  does  change, 
it  is  true,  but  since  its  principles  are  against  change  it 
hardly  ever  does  so  voluntarily,  and  usually  has  to  be 
improved  in  the  way  despotisms  are,  by  heresy  and 
schism,  corresponding  to  rebellion  and  revolution.  Thus 
its  modifications  are  painful  and  late-coming.  And  they 
have  generally  been  forced  upon  it  by  growing  morality 
that  it  had  enveloped  and  closed,  but  could  not  forever 
hold  hide-bound.  During  the  last  half  century  American 
Protestantism  has  been  amended  by  the  addition  of  two 
new  sins,  namely,  holding  slaves  and  drinking  wine,  both 
undoubtedly  sanctioned  by  the  Bible  as  much  now  as 
ever,  as  distinctly  as  eating  meat  is,  which  great  efforts 
are  being  made  to  degrade  in  its  turn  into  the  category 
of  sins.  But  the  contest  over  these  questions,  in  which 
the  defenders  of  the  Bible  have  been  clearly  in  the  right, 
has  so  wrenched  and  shaken  its  authority  in  the  estima- 
tion of  people  that  it  remains  to-day  too  weak  to  effect- 
ively maintain  a  single  point  of  doctrine  after  it  has 
gone  out  of  fashion  as  a  point  of  morality. 

It  would  be  wrong  to  say  that  the  sanctions  afforded 
by  religion  to  morality  are  ineffective,  but  in  making  a 
nursling  of  anything  it  is  also  made  a  weakling;  and 
Christianity,  having  in  course  of  time  become  discredited, 
the  morality  of  Christendom,  bereft  of  its  prop,  has,  no 
doubt,  suffered  in  many  respects,  notably  in  honesty. 
But  to  countervail  this,  the  gain  has  been  so  great  in 
humanity  and  tolerance,  kindliness  and  charity,  that  a 


136  RELIGION  IN  GENERAL. 

considerable  profit  remains  from  the  decadence  of  faith; 
while  there  also  remains  a  fair  inference  that  the  natural 
evolution  of  society,  liberated  in  part  by  that  decadence, 
has  in  all  respects  done  better  work  than  before. 

That  morality  should  be  left  free  to  achieve  progress 
on  its  own  account  and  go  its  own  way  towards  its  own 
evolutionary  goal  is  the  more  evident  when  it  is  con- 
sidered how  very  remote  that  goal  still  is.  The  time  is 
yet  far  off  when  the  natural  tendency  which  Spencer  has 
well  shown  altruism  has  to  run  itself  out  shall  bring  in 
a  social  state  wherein  every  man  will  be  so  bent  on 
doing  good  to  others  that  the  only  injury  others  can 
possibly  inflict  on  him  will  be  to  refuse  to  let  him  do  it. 
If  we  are  thus  remote  from  the  attainment  of  ideals 
presently  existing,  much  more  so  must  we  be  from  that 
which  the  Tao-Te-King  affirms  to  have  existed  in  ancient 
China,  and  beyond  which  it  seems  inconceivable  that 
any  ideal  could  go.  According  to  that,  the  Chinese  race 
at  least  once  actually  enjoyed  and  afterwards  fell  from 
a  social  state  that  was  above  virtue,  above  humanity, 
above  justice,  thus  above  morality — a  state  wherein  each 
man  did  virtuous  acts  without  dreaming  he  had  virtue, 
and  humane  acts  without  dreaming  he  was  humane,  and 
only  when  he  had  so  far  back-slidden  as  to  be  simply 
just  did  he  know  that  he  was  so.  Turning  and  looking 
back  toward  such  a  golden  age,  real  or  supposed,  wherein 
not  even  a  golden  rule  was  needed  for  man's  guidance, 
nor  any  thing  like  religion  known,*  and  setting  before 
the  mind  the  ideal  from  which  one  people  are  said  to 
have  fallen  as  the  one  to  be  aimed  at  by  all,  those  of 
our  day  may  easily  see  that  in  running  the  race  set 
before  her  morality  will  make  the  better  speed  the  less 
she  is  harnessed  to  religion  or  anything  else. 

Kant  claimed  to  have  found  in  the  moral  law,  discover- 
able by  conscience,  and  an  inborn  sense  of  obligation  to 

*  Legge  in  "  Texts  of  Taoism." 


RELIGION  IN  GENERAL.  137 

follow  it,  the  best  imaginable  guaranty  of  good  conduct. 
He  declared  that  one  who  by  reference  to  that  law  was 
restrained  from  committing  an  evil  action  which  other- 
wise he  would  by  force  of  evil  impulses  within  him  have 
committed,  was  more  praiseworthy  than  one  who  had  no 
such  impulses  to  restrain.  If  Kant  meant  by  this  that 
praise  and  credit  should  be  accorded  as  an  encourage- 
ment to  those  who  could  or  would  do  good  only  when 
that  law  required  them  to,  and  need  not  be  bestowed  on 
those  who  needed  no  such  encouragement,  he  was  right 
enough.  But  if  he  meant  to  say  that  these  last  were 
not  more  admiration-worthy  and  love-worthy,  and  more 
creditable  to  their  Creator  than  the  others — or  meant  to 
say  that  the  perfect  man  of  Lao-Tsee  was  not  a  more 
desirable  citizen  of  the  world  than  they,  he  was  wrong. 
There  is  no  man  who  would  not  rather  travel  round  the 
globe  with  a  companion  who  could  feel  no  impulse,  nor 
respond  to  any  temptation  to  injure  him,  than  with  one 
whose  heart  continually  prompted  him  to  murder  and  rob, 
but  who  as  continually  resisted,  however  effectually,  the 
prompting,  because  on  second  thoughts  he  recalled  that 
there  was  a  moral  law  within  him  which  prohibited  rob- 
bery and  murder,  and  that  to  break  it  would  make  him 
feel  more  uncomfortable  than  to  keep  it.  The  object  of 
Kant's  praise  must  be  ranked  in  the  third  degree  of 
moral  degradation,  according  to  the  classification  of  the 
Chinese  sage,  namely,  in  that  of  justice,  requiring,  to 
keep  him  in  order,  constant  reference  to  law,  and  acting 
always  "with  intention  ";  while  those,  if  such  now  exist, 
in  the  degree  next  higher,  humanity,  or  the  next  higher 
still,  virtue,  both  being  yet  below  the  highest  moral 
state,  Tao,  know  nothing  of  intention,  nor  require  to 
consult  conscience,  doing  as  they  will^  and  not  as  they 
must. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

THE    EVOLUTION    OF    SOCIAL    VIRTUE. 

For  the  established  fact  that  men's  good  dispositions 
toward  each  other  are  capable  of  improvement,  and  do 
improve  by  living  together  under  orderly  conditions, 
many  causes  have  been  supposed  besides  religion.  First 
in  order  comes  law,  with  force  at  its  back,  as  in  the  case 
of  governmental  enactments,  or  with  only  moral  sanctions 
of  punishment  or  reward  resting  in  public  opinion  and 
social  esteem,  or  the  expectation  expressed  in  the  saying 
of  Lao-Tsee  that  "whatsoever  you  do  unto  others,  that 
also  will  they  do  unto  you."  Out  of  long-continued  obe- 
dience to  law  grows  the  habit  of  doing  what  it  commands 
and  also  the  notion  that  it  is  more  the  law  we  have  to 
answer  to  than  the  principles  it  formulates,  from  which 
habit  and  notion  has  arisen  the  belief  taught  by  Kant, 
but  controverted  by  Schopenhauer,  of  a  categorical  im- 
perative, a  "must,"  an  "  ought,"  that  every  man  is  born 
with,  impelling  him  to  obey  a  moral  law  that  is  also  his 
birthright;  and  from  them  too  has  also  arisen  the  idea 
that  justice,  something  incidental  to  and  qualifying  the 
application  of  a  general  law  to  particular  cases,  is  the 
principle  of  morality. 

Another  and  a  potent  cause  is  the  extension  of  sym- 
pathy, love  and  friendship  which  close  and  long-con- 
tinued relations  of  men  with  each  other,  fostered  by 
peace  and  social  order,  tend  to  bring  about.  These 
softening  influences  originating  in  the  family,  thence 
extending  to  the  tribe,  thence  to  the  neighborhood,  and 
thence  to  the  nation,  finally  reach  out  to  the  whole  world 
at  least  such  is  their  tendency.     There  was  a  time 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL   VIRTUE.  139 

when  the  mating  of  the  sexes  brought  with  it  no  sexual 
love,  but  it  came.  There  was  a  time  when  paternal  love 
was  a  stranger  to  the  human  heart,  but  it  came.  There  was 
a  time  too  when  all  outside  the  tribe  were  enemies  or  prey, 
for  whom  in  their  sufferings  no  pity  was  felt,  and  in  whose 
joy  there  was  no  rejoicing.  If  one  kind  of  love  can  grow 
in  the  heart,  and  improve  its  dispositions  to  good,  so  can 
another,  and  another  still;  and  all  men  may  become 
brothers,  and  loving  ones,  if  they  will  only  keep  the 
peace  long  enough.  If  for  instance  sexual  love  is  a  prin- 
ciple in  man's  nature,  acting  of  its  own  motion,  and 
independent  of  evolution,  though  capable  of  being  devel- 
oped by  it,  so  may  be  all  other  love,  whether  arising 
between  children  of  the  same  family,  or  reaching  out  to 
universal  brotherhood. 

Still  another  cause  is  by  certain  mystical  philosophers 
found  in  sympathy.  The  knowledge  which  the  uncon- 
scious part  of  us  is  by  such  supposed  to  have,  that  all 
mankind  are  one,  so  that  when  one  strikes  another  he 
hits  himself,  they  consider  to  be  the  true  basis  of  mo- 
rality. As  such  knowledge  is  only  imparted  to  the  con- 
sciousness through  channels  properly  called  intuitive, 
this  doctrine  commends  itself  to  the  intuitional  school  of 
moralists;  while,  seeing  it  resolves  the  motive  to  moral 
conduct  into  pure  selfishness,  it  equally  should  commend 
itself  to  the  opposite  school  of  utilitarians,  whose  teach- 
ings the  first  opprobriously  denounce  as  selfish.  Much 
may  be  said  in  favor  of  the  moralizing  efficacy  of  this 
sub-consciousness  of  a  transcendent  unity.  The  fore- 
going are  the  most  important  of  the  theories  advanced 
by  those  who  labor  in  thought  over  the  problem  of  eth- 
ical evolution.  Probably  most  readers  will  judge  that 
of  all  the  causes  above  stated  as  working  out  that  evo- 
lution, law  and  force  are  the  worst,  and  sympathy  and 
love  the  best.  That  these  last  are  also  the  most  efficient 
is  of  late  coming  to  be  recognized  in  pulpit-teaching, 
which  yearly  relies  more  on  love  and  less  and  less  on  ter- 


140  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL    VIRTUE. 

ror;  though  our  law-makers,  by  the  multiplicity  of  their 
enactments  of  late  years  so  notable,  show  that  they  are 
far  from  having  learned  that  all  law  is  essentially  evil, 
and  only  justifiable  by  strong  necessity.  But  are  there 
not  still  other  causes  at  work  to  induce  in  men's  natures 
dispositions  to  good  conduct  ? 

The  world  did  not  have  to  wait  for  modern  science  to 
discover  and  proclaim  the  power  of  mind  over  mind  by 
other  and  more  direct  means  than  logical  ones,  and  the 
resulting  control  over  the  thought,  will  and  actions  of 
one  person  by  the  intentions  of  another.  Nor  was  Plo- 
tinus  telling  news  when  in  the  second  century  after 
Christ  he  said:  "  Every  being  who  has  relations  with 
another  can  be  bewitched  by  it;  it  is  bewitched  or 
attracted  by  the  being  with  which  it  is  in  rapport.  It  is 
only  the  being  concentrated  in  itself  (by  contemplation  of 
the  intelligible  world)  that  cannot  be  bewitched.  Magic 
exerts  its  influence  on  all  action  and  on  all  active  life, 
for  active  life  tends  towards  things  which  enchant  it." 
But  long  before  Plotinus  wrote  Chinese  rulers  actually 
applied  the  principle  to  the  government  of  their  states, 
calling  in  from  their  seclusion  sages  "concentrated  in 
themselves  "  to  bewitch  bad  citizens  into  becoming  good 
ones.  All  know  that  cases  are  common  of  couples  who 
begin  their  married  life  in  a  state  of  habitual  strife,  but 
who,  as  years  go  on,  grow  more  and  more  peaceable,  and 
finally  close  it  as  friends,  if  not  as  lovers — a  result,  to  be 
sure,  which  may  in  a  measure  be  due  to  their  learning 
by  experience  to  avoid  causes  of  contention  and  contact 
with  each  other's  rough  points,  but  is  sometimes  so 
marked  as  to  bring  in  the  supposition  that  it  may  also 
be  due  to  mutual,  long-continued,  unconsciously-exerted 
"  suggestion "  operating  in  their  natures  permanent 
changes  of  dispositions,  a  process  as  mysterious  as  that 
which,  in  couples  who  begin  as  lovers,  brings  them,  at 
the  end  of  a  long  and  harmonious  life,  to  look  and  think 
alike,  something  often  noticed,  admired  and  wondered  at. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL    VIRTUE.  141 

All  which  looks  as  if  the  supernatural  sometimes  comes 
into  the  province  of  familiar  life  to  play  its  part  as  an 
evolutionary  force,   or  at  least  something  not  usually 
credited  with  such  power.     Moved  by  self-interest,  each 
member  of  a  given  community  must  desire  that  every 
other  shall  be  good  to  him,  which  is  the  same  as  saying 
that  all  will  desire  that  all  others  shall  be  kind,  just  and 
orderly,  and  so  desiring,  will  in  their  business  or  social 
intercourse  be  continually  influencing  each  other,  by  true 
hypnotic   "suggestion,"  to  altruistic  acts.     The  buyer 
will  habitually  suggest  to  the  seller  to  be  content  with 
moderate  profits  and  give  good  measure,  and  the  sick 
man  will  mentally  implore  the  physician  to  nurse  him  and 
not  the  disease.     And  against  the  concentric  suggestions 
of  all  who  deal  with  or  employ  them,  these  will  have  no 
resisting  power  beyond  the   selfish   desire  and   mental 
action  of  their  respective  selves— in  each  case  it  will  be 
the  auto-suggestion  of  one  against  the  direct  suggestions 
of  many.     The  result  will  be  more  than  a  succession  in 
each  supposed  case  of  altruistic  acts  which  leave  the 
inner  nature  of  him  who  performs  them  untouched,  a 
series  of  good  deeds  done,  by  a  bad  man  it  may  be,  under 
magical  compulsion,  for  a  hypnotized  person  acts  from 
the  immediate  impulsion  of  his  own  subjective  mind,  which 
alone  is  amenable  to  control  by  suggestion,  and  his  acts 
seem  to  him  to  come  spontaneously  from  his  own  will. 
Therefore,  the  suggestion  that  he  perform  a  certain  neigh- 
borly duty  is  also  a  suggestion  that  he  is  a  good  neighbor, 
which  by  repetition  tends  to  make  him  such  in  reality. 
Contrary  to  this  would  be  the  case  of  a  slave,  compelled 
by  fear  of  the  lash  to  do  the  same  acts  that  such  a  neigh- 
bor would  do  from  a  good  disposition.      He  would  have 
his  fears  strengthened,  but  hardly  his  benevolence,  by 
the  discipline.     Evidently  those  actions  of  man  towards 
man  which  spring  from  fear  of  punishment  or  hope  of 
reward  must  be  in  their  essence  external  and  leave  the 
inner  nature  of  him  untouched ;  whereas  the  ^?/d!^z-hypnotic 


142  THE  EVOLUTIOX  OF  SOCIAL    VIRTUE. 

suggestion,  by  which  the  concentric  selfish  wills  of  a 
whole  community  act  on  the  individual  impulses  of  each, 
enters  into  the  very  nature  of  each  and  works  a  per- 
manent change;  and  this,  as  said  before,  because  every 
suggestion  to  do  a  good  act  is  also  a  suggestion  that  it  is 
to  be  done  from  a  spontaneous  impulse,  and  so  amounts 
to  a  suggestion  to  be,  naturally,  and  therefore  perma- 
nently, good. 

Human  activities  result  from  human  nature  acted  on 
by  earthly  conditions.  A  superior  nature  may  overcome 
evil  conditions  and  an  inferior  nature  may  fail  to  react 
under  good  ones,  but  in  all  cases  both  elements  have  to 
be  taken  into  account  in  reasoning  from  the  past  to  the 
future.  Is  it  possible  that  at  any  past  epoch  there  has  ex- 
isted on  our  earth  a  race  of  men  so  highly  favored  in  their 
inborn  dispositions  and  outward  circumstances  that  a 
social  state  has  resulted,  justly  entitling  that  epoch  to  be 
called  a  golden  age?  Lao-Tsee  insisted  that  there  had,  as 
indeed  others  of  the  ancients  did,  though  none  so  emphat- 
ically as  he ;  and  in  his  striving  against  the  school  of  moral- 
ists, whose  work  was  doubtless  rendered  necessary  by  the 
growing  wickedness  of  his  people,  which  he  admitted, 
but  would  not  admit  could  be  cured  by  moralization, 
turned  his  face  toward  it  as  to  an  age  himself  had  dwelt 
in  (if  not  during  his  then  lifetime  of  twelve  hundred 
years,  at  least  in  some  one  of  his  earlier  re-incarnations), 
wherein  men  could  keep  order  without  law,  do  good  to 
one  another  without  religion,  and  be  happy  in  their  loves 
without  morality,  knowing,  as  he  expressed  it,  their 
mothers  but  not  their  fathers — an  age  wherein  good 
actions  were  spontaneous,  and  performed  without  refer- 
ence to  any  rewards  or  punishments  to  follow,  or  even 
consciousness  that  they  were  virtuous,  humane  or  just. 

The  totality  of  the  orderly  conditions  which  permit 
the  evolution  of  goodness  in  the  heart  of  man  is  summed 
up  in  the  words  security  and  freedom^  and  these  again  in 
the  word  peace.      Egypt  and  Babylonia  developed  their 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL    VIRTUE.  143 

civilization  under  the  shelter  from  hostile  invasion 
afforded  by  bordering  deserts  and  seas.  India,  Greece 
and  Italy  are  peninsulas  sealed  by  mountain  ranges. 
Britain  and  Japan  are  islands.  But  the  happy  society  of 
the  golden  age  to  which  Lao-Tsee  has  alluded,  in  the 
Tas-Te-King,  if  it  ever  existed,  needed  a  far  greater 
measure  of  tranquillity  for  its  evolution  than  such  civili- 
zation as  we  know  of  did.  The  people  attaining  to  it, 
or  born  into  it,  must  have  been  so  averse  to  violence  as 
to  abstain  from  going  to  war,  and  also  disposed  and  able 
to  keep  war  from  coming  to  them;  moreover,  able  and 
disposed  to  live  together  in  peace  without  need  to  invoke 
that  other  form  of  violence  called  law.  But  never  in 
any  age  of  the  world  would  a  people  so  constituted  have 
been  allowed  to  occupy  any  desirable  territory,  or  in  fact 
any  part  of  the  habitable  globe,  properly  so  called,  while 
there  were  warlike  races  who  coveted  it;  and  pressed 
upon  by  such,  the  lovers  of  peace  must  have  been  driven 
from  place  to  place,  until  a  final  refuge  was  found  in  a 
region  uninhabitable  by  their  pursuers.  Such  a  region 
is  the  narrow  belt  which  bounds  on  its  southward  limit 
the  great  ice-cap  of  the  north,  a  belt  which  is  now  to  be 
looked  for  in  Alaska  and  Greenland,  but  which  once  was 
found  as  far  southward  as  central  France.  This  movable 
Arctic  circle,  so  to  call  it,  the  refugees  would  be  forced 
to  follow,  as  with  increasing  warmth  of  climate  it  slowly 
moved  northward,  subsisting  as  they  went  on  their  fellow 
refugees  the  reindeer,  mastodon  and  musk  ox,  or  perish- 
ing by  the  way.  And  to  subsist  and  not  perish  they 
must  have  been  intelligent,  vigorous  and  heroic. 

On  the  American  shores  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,  hemmed 
in  between  perilous  waters  and  frozen  land,  some  forty 
thousand  Eskimos  yet  manage  to  keep  alive.  They  are 
of  the  type  that  has  been  termed  mongoloid,  though  of 
much  lighter  complexion  than  the  mongols  proper,  of 
stature  averaging  five  feet,  six  inches ;  well  formed,  hardy 
and  strong  and  with  agreeable  and  smiling  faces.     They 


144  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL    VIRTUE. 

are  exceedingly  intelligent  and  skillful,  remarkably  in- 
genious, with  astonishing  readiness  in  emergencies,  learn 
rapidly,  have  much  artistic  skill,  a  taste  for  music,  and 
a  keen  sense  of  humor.  "  Their  invention  and  dexterity" 
are,  according  to  Captain  Cook,  "at  least  equal  to  that 
of  any  other  nation."  Though  strongly  averse  to  war, 
yet  when  assailed  by  their  savage  neighbors,  they  fight 
fiercely  and  well,  while  in  their  habitual  encounters  with 
the  turbulent  sea  and  its  monsters  they  show  a  heroism 
which  proves  that  courage  naturally  and  of  right  takes 
its  place  among  the  virtues  in  a  perfect  character,  nor 
needs  for  its  development  the  practice  of  man-slaying. 
In  the  Journal  of  the  Ethnological  Society  for  1848,  the 
characteristics  of  the  Eskimos  are  summed  up  thus: 
"They  are  uniformly  described  as  scrupulously  honest, 
careful  of  the  aged,  affectionate  to  their  children,  devo- 
tedly attached  to  each  other  and  fond  of  their  domestic 
animals.  So  little  are  they  inclined  to  quarrel  that  after 
two  years'  acquaintance  with  the  natives  of  Melbourne 
Peninsula,  Sir  Edward  Parry  has  related  only  one  case 
where  it  extended  to  blows."  It  is  further  said  of  them 
that  they  share  their  food  as  a  matter  of  course  with 
whoever  is  in  need.  As  a  phrenologist  would  expect, 
their  skulls  are  described  as  "  largish  "  and  also  as  high, 
showing  a  good  development  of  the  moral  faculties. 
They  are  "  morbidly  anxious  not  to  give  offence,"  fas- 
tidiously ceremonious  and  polite,  carrying  the  latter  vir- 
tue so  far  that  it  is  said,  "  They  always,  in  their  dealings 
with  the  Danes  of  Greenland,  leave  it  to  the  buyer  to  fix 
the  price  of  what  they  sell,"  and  "in  their  intercourse 
with  each  other  indulge  in  much  hyperbolical  compliment 
and  language  courteous  from  the  teeth  outward. "  Father 
Barnum,  a  Jesuit  missionary  lately  from  among  them, 
adds  his  testimony  to  the  foregoing  by  telling  us  they 
are  gentle,  hospitable  and  good-natured.  He  also  says 
their  language  is  magnificent  and  rich,  very  complicated, 
and  free  from  harsh  sounds. 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL   VIRTUE.  145 

Per  contra,  though  absolutely  honest  towards  each 
other,  it  is  said  that  some  of  them  will  sometimes  steal 
"unconsidered  trifles,"  like  harpoons,  fish-hooks,  knives, 
etc.,  left  in  their  way  by  strangers;  but  concerning  this, 
Captain  Parry  truly  observed:  "We  must  make  due 
allowance  for  the  degree  of  temptation  to  which  they 
were  daily  exposed,  amidst  the  boundless  stores  of  wealth 
which  our  ships  appeared  to  them  to  furnish."  They 
can  bear  grudges  too,  will  secretly  injure  those  who  in- 
jure them,  and  will  even  lie  in  wait  and  kill  an  enemy; 
and  "when  a  murder  is  committed  it  appears  that  the 
nearest  relation  or  most  intimate  friend  of  the  slain  has  a 
right  to  kill  the  murderer;"  this  is  secretly,  of  course,  for 
they  are  so  averse  to  violence  that  they  will  "not  even  kill 
an  enemy  except  by  stealth."  This  bearing  grudges  and 
secretly  revenging  injuries  would  naturally  result  from 
aversion  to  violence  whether  of  words  or  deeds  and 
depend  on  the  same  principle  which  causes  them,  good 
fighters  as  they  are  when  pushed  to  the  wall,  to  avoid 
war  as  long  as  they  can;  thus  it  is  from  a  principle  of 
mildness,  itself  a  form  of  goodness,  that  they  in  such 
cases  act.  But  such  retaliations  must  needs  be  rare,  and 
only  resorted  to  in  cases  clearly  proved,  or  they  would 
not  be  acquiesced  in  by  the  community,  and  would 
besides  bring  on  counter  and  cumulative  retaliations, 
necessitating  an  established  government.  They  are  in 
reality  judicial  proceedings  carried  on  without  cost  to  the 
county.  Lastly,  the  Eskimos  are  accused  of  sometimes 
indulging  in  polygamy  and  polyandry,  and  of  tolerating 
without  the  least  pang  of  jealousy  the  free-kindness  their 
wives  manifest  towards  strangers.  In  short,  although 
their  family  methods  are  such  as  are  entirely  to  their 
own  liking,  they  have  not  yet  adopted  ours.  Let  the 
most  be  made  of  this  that  can.  And  making  the  most 
of  all  the  foregoing,  and  even  allowing  nothing  for  the 
prejudice  of  the  missionaries  through  whom  chiefly  the 
accusations  have  come,  nor  for  the  contaminating  con- 


U6  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL   VIRTUE. 

tact  of  the  Europeans  and  Americans,  whose  worst  rep- 
resentatives have  been  for  a  century  and  more  taking 
advantage  of  the  afore-mentioned  free-kindness  to  adul- 
terate the  Eskimo's  blood  with  their  own  racial  ferocity  of 
character  and  poison  it  with  syphilitic  virus,  while  their 
best  ones  have  been  trying  to  make  death  terrible  to 
them  instead  of  what  they  have  been  used  to  consider  it, 
a  welcome  relief  from  a  life  of  peculiar  hardships  and  an 
entrance  into  a  paradise  as  good  as  they  can  imagine, 
there  still  remains  a  people  whose  conduct  is  sufficiently 
perfect  for  all  practical  purposes,  a  people  in  fact  as 
much  so  as  they  could  be  and  not  be  quite  characterless. 
They  are,  literally  speaking,  too  good  for  this  world, 
since  their  best  virtue,  aversion  to  war,  has  disabled 
them  to  hold  their  own  in  any  part  of  it  of  use  to  other 
races.  "  What  an  admirable  government  they  must  have 
had,"  one  who  holds  morality  to  be  a  creation  of  state- 
craft might  exclaim;  "what  severe  laws,  what  a  well- 
drilled  police,  what  sharp  detectives,  what  strong  prisons, 
what  frequent  executions!  "  While  one  who  traces  moral 
evolution  to  a  religious  origin  will  say,  "  what  a  severe 
god,  what  a  cruel  devil,  and  what  a  hot  hell  must  have 
been  theirs!"  But  no;  these  good  outcasts  are  abso- 
lutely without  government,  or  law,  God  or  religion, 
morality,  or  even  customs.  Like  the  Chinese  of  the 
golden  age,  they  do  good  not  because  commanded  to  do 
so  by  any  of  these,  nor  because  it  is  right,  but  because 
it  is  their  humor  to  do  so.  "They  have,"  says  one 
authority,  "no  chiefs  or  political  or  military  rulers." 
One  Fabricius  described  them  in  his  day,  as  "  Sine  Dom- 
ino regunter,  aiit,  consuetudine."  "  They  live  in  a  state  of 
perfect  freedom,"  says  another,  "no  one  apparently 
claiming  authority  over  or  acknowledging  the  least  sub- 
ordination to  another  except  what  is  due  from  children 
to  their  parents;  an  Eskimo  is  subject  to  no  man's  con- 
trol." It  is  true  that  they  take  counsel  of  their  elders, 
by  some  travellers  thought  to  be  chiefs,  and  employ  med- 


THE   EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL    VIRTUE.  147 

icine  men,  by  some  mistaken  for  priests,  but  the  former 
pretend  to  no  authority  and  the  latter  do  not  undertake 
to  rule  the  natural  world  from  the  spiritual  one;  *'  no 
kind  of  religious  worship  seems  to  exist  among  them," 
says  one  traveller,  and  Lubbock's  "  Pre-historic  Times  " 
quotes  Crantz  as  saying:  "  The  Greenland  Eskimos  have 
neither  religion  nor  idolatrous  worship,  nor  so  much  as 
any  ceremonies  to  be  perceived  tending  towards  it." 

There  is  an  old  story  of  a  sick  king  whom  nothing 
could  cure  but  wearing  the  shirt  of  a  perfectly  happy 
man;  but  unfortunately,  the  only  perfectly  happy  man  to 
be  found  in  his  whole  realm  never  had  owned  a  shirt. 
In  like  manner,  were  the  modern  rulers  of  a  sick  state  to 
send  commissioners  to  the  good  folk  of  Greenland  or 
Alaska  to  obtain  copies  of  their  bible,  statute  book  or 
moral  code  to  apply  to  the  healing  of  their  nation,  those 
commissioners  would  have  to  return  empty-handed  and 
report  that  the  best  race  on  the  globe  were  absolutely 
without  government,  none  of  them  ever  intentionally  obey- 
ing a  law,  or  a  "  categorical  imperative,"  keeping  a  com- 
mandment or  following  a  custom,  but  that  each  did  as 
he  pleased  because  it  pleased  him  to  do  so.  They  might 
also  report  that  though  the  Eskimos  believe  themselves 
to  be  the  happiest  race  on  the  earth  and  have  much  pity 
for  all  others,  not  one  among  them  ever  had  a  shirt  to 
his  back. 

But  they  have  in  a  large  degree  the  virtue  of  being  sen- 
sitive to  public  opinion.  "  Nothing  so  effectually  re- 
strains the  Greenlander  from  vice  as  the  dread  of  public 
disgrace, "says  one  authority.  Another  tells  us:  "  They 
decide  their  quarrels  by  a  match  of  singing  and  dancing 
which  they  call  the  Singing  Combat.  If  a  Greenlander 
thinks  himself  aggrieved  by  another,  he  discovers  no 
symptom  of  revengeful  designs,  anger  or  vexation,  but 
he  composes  a  satirical  poem,  which  he  recites  with  sing- 
ing and  dancing  in  the  presence  of  his  domestics  and 
particularly  the  female  part  of  his  family,  till  they  know 


148  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL    VIRTUE. 

it  by  rote.  He  then  in  the  face  of  the  whole  country 
challenges  his  antagonist  to  a  satirical  duel,  ...  he 
who  has  the  last  word  wins  the  trial."  Surely  so  mild 
a  chastisement  as  this,  and  the  knowledge  that  every 
serious  trespass  on  the  neighbor  will  bring  a  quietly  and 
secretly  inflicted  retaliation  in  kind,  the  offence  being  the 
measure  of  its  own  punishment,  would  have  advantages 
over  the  rule  of  brute  force.,  as  Godwin  calls  it,  on  which 
civilized  society  relies  to  preserve  order. 

Kindred  to,  one  might  say  identical  with,  their  aver- 
sion to  be  governed  is  the  dislike  of  the  Eskimos  to  con- 
trol of  every  kind.  It  is  very  difficult  to  induce  them  to 
enter  into  a  contract  of  service,  though  when  they  do 
it  is  observed  with  "slavish"  fidelity.  They  are  the 
truest  lovers  of  freedom  that  live.  Their  aversion  to  war, 
on  which  their  destiny,  and  may  be  that  of  the  whole 
human  race  has  turned,  is  important  enough  to  be  well 
considered.  Its  roots  must  lie  deep  in  their  natures. 
One  root  may  be  their  repugnance  to  the  presence  of 
death.  The  traveller  Hall  reports  that  "they  have  a 
superstitious  objection  to  use,  or  even  touch,  anything 
that  has  been  in  a  house  containing  a  dead  body."  And 
they  remove  it  for  burial  not  by  the  door,  but  by  a  win- 
dow,  or  if  there  be  none,  through  a  hole  made  for  the 
purpose.  From  this  repugnance,  mingled  with  an  ex- 
treme sensitiveness  to  the  sufferings  of  others,  especially 
of  those  they  love,  it  is  that  in  some  cases  "where  a 
person  is  evidently  dying  they  place  by  him  everything 
which  can  soothe  and  comfort  his  last  moments,  including 
warm  covering,  and  leave  the  ingloo  or  house,  which 
they  close  up,  thus  converting  it  into  a  tomb." 

Another  root  may  be  their  sense  of  shame,  a  sense 
of  no  mean  importance  as  a  regulator  of  human  conduct. 
(Schopenhauer  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that  where  it  arises 
it  is  good  proof  that  the  act  which  causes  it  is  evil,  pro- 
creation, for  instance.)  With  the  Eskimos  war  is  indecent 
and  murder  obscene.     Strange  as  it  may  seem,  and  hard 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL    VIRTUE.  149 

as  it  may  be  to  explain,  to  them,  violence  of  every  kind 
is  something  to  blush  for;  and  this  being  admitted,  the 
power  of  mere  shame  to  restrain  from  deeds  of  violence 
may  easily  be  also  admitted.  The  vestal  virgins  were 
withheld  from  suicide  by  knowing  that  if  any  of  them 
should  commit  it  her  body  would  be  publicly  exposed. 
King  Candulus  had  to  die  because  he  offended  his  wife's 
modesty  by  showing  her  naked  to  his  friend.  And  if 
every  senator  and  representative  of  ours  who  should 
vote  to  declare  war  were  compelled  to  exhibit  himself 
before  the  first  army  that  marched  to  battle  in  like  plight 
with  that  modest,  murderous  queen,  unquestionably  he 
would  be  thereby  inclined  to  peaceful  counsels. 

Another  root  of  this  hatred  of  strife  so  strange  in  a 
world  of  slaughter  like  ours  may  be  that  evenness  of 
temper  often  wondered  at  by  all  who  go  among  the  Eski- 
mos. Just  as  great  billows  cannot  rise  and  rage  except 
the  surface  of  the  sea  be  first  rippled  with  wavelets,  and 
in  fact  depend  on  them,  since  when  the  wavelets  are 
quieted  with  a  little  oil  the  billows  subside,  so  human  rage 
depends  for  its  support  on  the  irritability  of  men's  tem- 
pers, and  cannot  arise  while  they  remain  unruffled.  Now 
this  support  singularly  fails  in  the  case  of  the  impertur- 
able  Eskimos,  of  whom  Captain  Lyon  remarks  "...  that 
their  evenness  of  temper  is  not  surpassed,  if  equaled, 
by  any  other  nation."  Another  observer  goes  further 
still,  and  Father  Barnum  relates  that  on  one  occasion  he 
was  in  a  boat  manned  by  them  when,  just  as  it  was  being 
pulled  past  a  most  dangerous  point,  where  it  required 
the  utmost  care  and  steadiness  to  avoid  being  carried  by 
a  current  upon  and  dashed  against  a  point  of  rocks,  one 
of  the  crew  mal-adroitly  broke  his  oar,  and  that  in  the 
season  of  suspense  which  followed  and  while  the  man  was 
striving  to  pull  forth  another  from  the  bottom  of  the  boat 
and  get  it  into  position,  he  looked  first  at  the  rocks  that 
seemed  to  roar  louder  for  the  prey  that  was  nearing  their 
jaws  with  every  anxious  instant  that  passed  and  then  at 


150  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL   VIRTUE. 

the  faces  of  the  crew,  but  saw  no  sign  nor  heard  any  word 
of  anger  or  impatience ;  instead,  only  a  smile  of  surprise ; 
nor  was  the  offender  reproached  afterwards,  A  crew  of 
Americans  might  have  kept  silence  while  the  peril  was 
upon  them,  but  could  they  have  smiled  ?  And  would  they 
not  as  soon  as  safe  sworn  with  many  oaths  and  much  em- 
phasis ?  Such  a  people  could  not  easily  be  stirred  to 
make  mobs  of  themselves  and  shout  '■'■  Nacht  Paris  !  "  or 
'"'■  A  Berlin!  "  An  imperturbable  temper,  is  it  not  of  like 
quality  with  the  state  of  mental  and  emotional  indiffer- 
ence which  after  years  of  tranquil  contemplation  comes 
to  reward  the  Hindu  yoga  or  other  saint,  and  which 
Plotinus  describes  as  so  complete  that  a  true  sage,  one 
who  had  "attained,"  could  witness  unmoved  the  sacking 
of  a  city;  so  that  the  word  "philosophical  "  has  in  com- 
mon parlance  for  one  meaning,  quietude  of  temper  ? 

Retaliation  in  kind  could  not  be  practiced  by  any  less 
philosophical  people  than  the  Eskimos,  without  resulting 
in  a  state  of  anarchy  such  as  would  make  a  government 
of  some  kind  necessary.  That  it  has  not  in  their  case 
may  be  attributed  to  an  inertia  of  temper  which  only  a 
much  greater  provocation  than  would  suffice  to  stir  ours 
can  move  to  violence,  and  also  to  an  altruism  much  sur- 
passing ours.  And  we  must  suppose  that  in  Greenland 
and  Alaska  the  retaliatory  punishment  is  justly  propor- 
tional to  the  offense,  and  is  therefore  submitted  to  with- 
out bringing  on  counter  retaliation  as  it  would  in  so-called 
civilized  countries,  where  accordingly  it  could  not  be 
allowed  to  take  the  place  of  law,  though  it  often  rages 
despite  of  law,  especially  in  America,  in  some  parts  of 
which  country  the  counter  retaliation  brought  on  by 
bountiful  over-measure  of  revenge  occasionally  extends 
till  it  involves  large  family  connections  in  feuds  that  be- 
come hereditary,  and  sometimes  only  end  with  the  exter- 
mination of  one  of  the  warring  clans. 

In  disputes  between  nations,  each  party  being  its  own 
judge,  is  sure  to  overestimate  its  injuries  and  claims  and 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL   VIRTUE.  151 

underestimate  those  of  the  other,  and  in  exacting  re- 
dress or  inflicting  vengeance  the  one  will  be  as  sure  to  do 
so  in  over-measure  and  the  other  to  refuse  submission  to 
it  even  if  under-measured,  and  to  cherish  hopes  of  reprisal 
and  re-revenge.  Thus  war  breeds  war,  and  a  state  of 
national  anarchy  has  arisen  like  what  would  arise  if  in 
courts  of  justice  each  plaintiff  in  a  proceeding  were,  be- 
sides drafting  his  complaint,  to  bring  in  his  own  verdict, 
render  his  own  judgment  upon  it,  and  take  the  execution 
of  that  judgment  into  his  own  hands.  To  day  Christen- 
dom on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  seems  only  pausing  from 
battle  to  get  its  breath;  and  who  but  knows  that  the 
evolution  of  humane  dispositions,  which  has  of  late 
achieved  its  best  result  in  causing  the  British  people  to 
abandon  private  warfare  in  the  form  of  duelling,  must, 
operate  a  long  while  yet  before  that  or  any  other  people 
will  allow  its  government  to  accept  as  the  Eskimos  must, 
and  be  content  with,  less  than  the  full  measure  of  redress 
it  conceives  itself  entitled  to  have.  Before  private  war- 
fare could  be  brought  to  an  end  in  the  British  Isles  some 
one  gentleman  of  high  standing  and  known  courage  had 
to  take  an  insult  without  giving  a  challenge.  What 
great  nation  will  begin  the  ending  of  national  warfare 
by  pocketing  an  insult  or  forgiving  an  injury  ?  A  ques- 
tion out  of  which  arises  another:  what  ministry  or  party 
could  keep  in  power  after  a  vote  to  do  either  ?  The  few 
reflect,  the  multitude  rage,  and  rage  prevails. 

The  peaceful  Eskimos,  by  choosing  to  run  rather  than 
fight,  have  secured  for  themselves,  we  may  say,  five  thou- 
sand years  of  tranquillity  during  which  the  forces  that 
make  for  altruism  could  work.  Had  they  been  allowed 
during  those  years  to  dwell  in  the  temperate  zone  instead 
of  being  driven  to  the  snows  to  live  without  fire  or  water, 
the  fruits  of  their  long  peace  might  have  been  something 
more  than  the  practice  of  social  virtue  among  some 
widely  scattered  outcasts. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  remnant  of  forty 


153  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL   VIRTUE. 

thousand,  which  is  all  they  now  count,  represent  a  much 
larger  number  who  once  found  refuge  in  the  larger  belt 
of  polar  region  accessible  to  them  when  the  southern 
boundary  of  the  ice-cap  was  traced  across  the  central 
parts  of  Asia,  Europe  and  America.  Possibly  the  ances- 
tors of  the  Eskimos  may  once  have  spread  over  large 
portions  of  the  temperate  zone,  and  afterwards  been 
driven  from  it  by  warlike  tribes  multiplying  upon  their 
borders;  a  small  pack  of  wolves  can  chase  a  large  flock 
of  sheep.  It  seems  to  be  now  the  opinion  of  those  who 
investigate  such  things  that  the  cave-dwellers  of  Central 
Europe  were  of  the  same  race  as  the  present  Eskimos. 
One  authority  tells  us  that:  "These  traces  of  the  most 
ancient  races  of  men  as  yet  discovered  in  Europe  may 
with  a  high  degree  of  probability  be  referred  to  the 
Eskimos.  The  bone  needles  and  many  of  the  harpoons, 
as  well  as  the  flint  spear-heads,  arrow-heads  and  scrapers, 
are  of  precisely  the  same  form  as  those  now  in  use  among 
the  Eskimos.  The  artistic  designs  from  the  caves  of 
France,  Belgium  and  Switzerland  are  identical  in  plan 
and  workmanship  with  those  of  the  Eskimos,  with  this 
difference  only,  that  the  hunting  scenes,  familiar  to  the 
Palaeolithic  cave-dwellers,  were  not  the  same  as  those 
familiar  to  the  shores  of  the  Arctic  Ocean.  Each  repre- 
sented the  animals  which  he  knew,  and  the  whale,  walrus 
and  seal  were  unknown  to  the  inland  dwellers  of  Aqui- 
taine,  just  as  the  mammoth,  bison  and  wild  horse  are 
unknown  to  the  Eskimos.  The  reindeer,  which  they 
both  knew,  is  represented  in  the  same  way  by  both.  The 
practice  of  accumulating  large  quantities  of  the  bones 
of  animals  round  their  dwelling-places,  and  the  habit  of 
splitting  the  bones  for  the  sake  of  the  marrow,  are  the 
same  in  both.  The  hides  were  prepared  with  the  same 
sort  of  instruments,  and  the  needles  with  which  they 
were  sewn  together  are  of  the  same  pattern.  In  both 
there  was  the  same  disregard  of  sepulture.  All  these 
facts  can  hardly  be  mere  coincidences   caused  by  both 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF   SOCIAL    VIRTUE.  153 

people   leading  a  savage   life   under  similar  conditions. 
The  conclusion,  therefore,  seems  inevitable  that,  so  far 
as  we  have  any  evidence  of  the  race  to  which  the  cave- 
dwellers  belong,  that  evidence  points  only  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Eskimo."    .    .    .     ''The  reindeer  and  musk 
sheep  afford   food    now  to  the   Eskimos  in   the  Arctic 
Circle,  just  as  they  afforded  it  to  the  Palseolithic  hunters 
in  Europe;  and  both  these  animals  have  been  traced  by 
their  remains  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the  northeast,  through 
Europe  and  Asia  as  far  as  the  very  regions  in  which  they  now 
live.     The  mammoth  and  bison,  too,  have  been  tracked 
by  their  remains  in   the  frozen   river  gravels  through 
Siberia  as  far  as  the  American   side  of  the   Straits  of 
Behring.     Paleolithic  man  appeared  in  Europe  with  the 
Arctic  mammalia,  lived  in  Europe  with  them,  and  in  all 
human  probability  retreated  to  the  northeast  with  them." 
It  will  be  noted  that  the  course  of  the  migration  here 
set  forth  was  through  regions  now  included  in  the  Chinese 
Empire.   Could  it  have  been  that  a  portion  of  the  on-mov- 
ing lovers  of  peace  halted  and  stood  at  bay,  then  turned 
on  and  overcame  their  pursuers,  or  by  the  exercise  of 
their  superior  intelligence  got  control  of  the  tribes  press- 
ing upon  them  just  as  the  migrating  Hindus  mastered 
the  aborigines  of  Hindustan,  and  just  as  the  Chinese  did, 
in  fact,  after  the  dawn  of  history,  master  those  of  the 
valley  of  the  Yellow  River  into  which  they  descended 
from  the  North  ?     Could  it  have  been  that  ages  before 
this  descent  they  became  in  some  such  way  masters  of 
their  own  movements,  then  fusing  more  or  less  with  their 
ferocious  neighbors,  became  warlike  enough  to  hold  their 
own,  and  ceasing  to  be  nomads,  settled  down  as  husband- 
men, and  so  became  Chinese,  while  others,  moving  on, 
became  the  Eskimos,  as  we  know  them  now  ?     Both  the 
Chinese  and  Eskimos  are  Mongolian  in  type,  both  are  of 
lighter  complexion  than  others  of  that  type,  and  both 
have  narrow  eyes,  such  as  are  supposed  to  result  from 
snow-glare  in  frozen  regions,  and  such  as  even  the  ani- 


154  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL    VIRTUE. 

malswho  exist  there  show.  Professor  Tiele,  of  Leyden, 
writing  under  the  heading  of  "  Religion  "  in  the  Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica,  says  the  Eskimos  have  many  of  the 
Mongolian  customs.  They  resemble  the  Chinese  again  in 
being  excessively  ceremonious  and  polite,  preferring  to 
lie  rather  than  hurt  the  feelings  of  others,  and  in  having 
great  artistic  ability  and  handicraft  skill.  The  Eskimos 
dislike  to  be  governed;  the  Chinese,  though  overmuch 
governed,  dislike  it,  too;  have  as  little  as  possible  to  do 
with  courts  or  officials,  and  buy  their  peace  of  both  with 
bribes,  just  as  they  would  pay  tribute  to  brigands.  And 
the  ability  to  do  without  government  or  law,  which  the 
Eskimos  actually  prove  themselves  to  possess,  was 
matched  in  the  legendary  China  of  Lao-Tsee,  wherein 
men  were  good  without  regard  to  law,  and  whence  seem 
to  have  come  down  to  historic  times  strangely  demo- 
cratic, or  rather  nihilistic,  ideas,  which  have  found  ex- 
pression in  sayings  of  their  great  sage  like  these:  "  He 
who  rules  ruins;  "  "  Let  him  rule  the  empire  who  can  let 
things  alone ;  "  "  The  more  regulations  the  worse  off  the 
people;  "  "  The  more  show  of  penalties  the  more  rogues, 
therefore  the  wise  man  says,  I  will  be  quiet  and  the  peo- 
ple will  have  a  chance  to  improve  themselves;  "  "  Over- 
legislation  increases  crime;"  "If  the  government  is 
meddling  there  will  be  constant  law-breaking."  "  The 
right  of  rebellion,"  says  one  writer,  "  enters  into  the  very 
texture  of  Chinese  education. "  Another  calls  them,  "  the 
least  revolutionary,  but  the  most  rebellious  of  peoples." 
The  Chinese  as  known  in  historic  times  cannot  be  ex- 
pected to  prove  their  descent  from  the  cave-dwellers  by 
emulating  the  lawless  goodness  of  the  present  Eskimos, 
seeing  their  history  is  that  of  a  warlike  people,  and  they 
have  largely  adulterated  their  blood  with  that  of  the  fero- 
cious tribes  they  have  absorbed,  both  of  which  causes 
would  have  hindered  the  evolution  or  the  practice  of 
such  goodness;  yet  they  were  good  enough  to  have  be- 
come a  thousand  years  ago  the  most  civilized  people  in 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL    VIRTUE.  155 

the  world,  and  seventeen  hundred  years  ago  Ptolemy 
could  write  of  them  that  they  were  "civilized,  mild,  just 
and  frugal,"  and  to-day  there  can  be  no  doubt  in  any 
informed  and  impartial  mind  that  life  and  property  are 
as  safe  among  them  as  in  any  country  on  the  globe,  nor 
that  in  the  conduct  of  their  relations  with  other  nations 
they  have  shown  a  better  morality  and  humanity  than 
Great  Britain  or  the  United  States  can  boast.  As  in  re- 
spect to  the  aversion  to  being  governed  we  have  to  look 
for  a  parallel  to  Eskimo  practice  in  Chinese  precept,  so 
in  respect  to  the  spontaneous  goodness  of  the  Eskimo  we 
have  to  look  for  a  parallel  mainly  to  the  Chinese  ideal,  as 
it  has  always  been  held  to,  and  held  to,  be  it  noted,  as  an 
inheritance  from  prehistoric  times.  "At  the  base  of  the 
whole  Shu  King,"  says  Samuel  Johnson,  "  is  the  charac- 
teristic Chinese  faith  in  an  inherent  moral  sense  in  all 
men,  whose  sanctions  are  not  found  in  fears  of  hell  or 
hopes  of  heaven,  and  whose  acknowledged  origin  in  the 
nature  of  things  leaves  no  room  for  arbitrary  divine  will. " 
Again  he  says:  "  That  morality  does  not  depend  on  such 
separation  of  reason  and  faith  (religious  sanction)  is 
clearly  proved  by  the  fact  that  no  race  in  the  world  has 
attained  by  the  habitual  use  of  it  to  so  pure  an  ethical 
consciousness  as  the  Chinese  have  reached  without  it, 
and  none,  it  is  probable,  on  the  whole,  a  practical  con- 
duct more  free  from  the  gross  vices."  And  this  tradition 
of  the  natural  goodness  of  man  has  even  infected  the 
moralization  of  Confucius,  so  that  his  disciple  Mencius 
sententiously  expresses  it  in  the  saying:  "Who  knows 
his  own  nature  knows  heaven."  That  this  high  ideal  of 
right  conduct  and  of  the  natural  goodness  of  the  heart  of 
man  does  not  rest  in  idea  merely,  but  is  believed  to  actu- 
ate mankind  at  large,  and  their  rulers,  too,  was  well 
illustrated  by  the  letter  which  the  Imperial  Commis- 
sioner Lin  addressed  to  the  Queen  of  England,  in  which 
he  appealed  directly  to  her  heart  and  conscience  not  to 
force  into  the  ports  of  China  a  drug  poisonous  to  soul  and 


lo6  THE  EVOLUTION   OF  SOCIAL   VIRTUE. 

body,  using  language  that  must  have  made  her  sigh  with 
regret  that  the  interests  of  trade  and  the  limitations  of 
the  British  Constitution  restrained  her  from  making  other 
reply  than  with  bullets  and  bombs,  fire  and  blood.  "  How 
then,"  said  he,  "  can  you  bear  to  seek  gain  by  means  of 
an  article  so  injurious  to  man,  and  without  compunction 
of  conscience?  We  have  heard  that  you,  the  ruler  of  your 
honorable  Kingdom,  have  an  expanded  heart,  and  you 
must  therefore  be  unwilling  to  do  to  others  what  you 
would  not  desire  to  have  done  to  yourself." 

As  their  impassive  faces  testify,  the  Chinese  are  imper- 
turbable of  temper,  and  therefore  not  easily  moved  to 
anger,  and  though  their  slow-moving  government  has  not 
yet  followed  the  example  set  some  one  or  two  centuries 
ago  by  those  of  Europe  in  abolishing  judicial  torture,  they 
cannot  be  called  a  cruel  people;  on  the  contrary,  the 
testimony  of  Friar  Carpini,  given  six  hundred  years  ago, 
that  they  were  a  "kindly  folk,"  is  abundantly  confirmed 
by  those  who  go  among  them  now.  And  kindliness  and 
evenness  of  temper  certainly  must  dispose  a  people  to 
peace.  That  China  has  been  able  to  so  far  keep  the  peace 
within  her  borders  as  to  have  enabled  a  population  of 
four  hundred  millions  to  come  into  being  and  subsist 
there,  is  good  proof  that  her  people  are  like  the  Eskimos, 
though  in  a  less  degree,  it  is  true,  averse  to  war,  espe- 
cially when  it  is  considered  that  for  centuries  her  borders 
have  been  infested  with  the  terribly  warlike  Tartars,  able 
to  ravage  Europe  at  will,  yet  whom  she  generally  man- 
aged to  keep  at  bay,  often  invading  and  conquering  them, 
annexing  their  territory  and  civilizing  and  assimilating 
its  inhabitants;  as  she  did,  too,  when  herself  conquered, 
with  the  hordes  that  poured  in  under  Jenghis  Khan  and 
his  descendants  and  also  with  the  Manchus,  when,  upon 
the  invitation  of  one  party  in  a  civil  war,  they  slipped  in 
and  gained  possession  of  the  government.  Chinese  rulers 
have  habitually  sought  to  avoid  war  by  diplomacy  and 
concessions,  and  by  delays  which  give  the  blood  time  to 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL   VIRTUE.  157 

cool.  The  great  wall  is  a  monument  to  their  love  of 
peace,  and  they  have  even  made  terms  with  pirates  and 
given  important  offices  to  their  chiefs.  Chinese  sages  in 
their  teachings  insist  upon  peace  as  a  condition  essential 
to  the  well-being  of  the  people.  Lao-Tsee  says  of  the 
wise  ruler  that  *'  if  he  triumphs  (in  war)  he  does  not  re- 
joice. To  rejoice  is  to  love  to  kill  men.  He  who  loves 
to  kill  men  cannot  succeed  in  governing  the  Empire," 
And  again :  "  He  who  has  killed  a  multitude  of  men  must 
weep  over  them  with  tears  and  sobs.  He  who  has  been 
victorious  in  battle  they  place  according  to  the  funeral 
rites."  This  last  is  explained  in  a  note  thus:  "In  an- 
tiquity, when  a  general  had  gained  a  victory,  he  put  on 
mourning.  He  put  himself  (in  the  temple)  in  the  place 
of  those  who  preside  at  funeral  rites,  and,  clothed  in  close 
vestments,  he  wept  and  sobbed."  Twenty-five  hundred 
years  ago  this  denunciation  of  war  was  uttered,  and  the 
custom  alluded  to  as  prevailing  in  what  had  then  become 
antiquity  may  have  been  still  older  by  another  like  term 
of  time.  The  aversion  to  war  shown  by  the  foregoing  has 
doubtless  grown  weaker  with  the  lapse  of  time.  The 
necessity  of  repelling  invasion  by  neighboring  peoples  of 
ferocious  dispositions,  and  of  sometimes  absorbing  them 
must  needs  in  some  degree  have  assimilated  the  Chinese 
heart  to  that  of  the  Christian  West,  which  is  quite  too 
patriotic  to  mourn  for  dead  enemies,  but  prefers  to  cele- 
brate victories  by  hymns  of  thanks  and  praise  loud  and 
fervent  in  proportion  to  the  numbers  of  them  killed, 
wounded  and  missing.  But  the  fact  that  twenty-five  hun- 
dred, perhaps  five  thousand  years  ago,  it  was  not  so  is 
the  more  vi^orthy  to  be  noted  in  this  connection,  for  the 
further  back  into  the  past  the  existence  of  such  peaceable 
dispositions  can  be  traced  the  more  creditable  it  is  to  the 
original  stock  whence  the  Chinese  have  descended,  and 
the  more  close  the  resemblance  grows  between  them  and 
the  Eskimos,  and  the  likelihood  that  that  stock  was  the 
root  race  of  both. 


158  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL    VIRTUE. 

Another  point  of  resemblance  in  the  customs  of  the  two 
people  is  found  in  their  treatment  of  persons  moribund. 
On  an  earlier  page  the  Eskimo  custom  in  this  respect  has 
been  described;  that  of  the  Chinese  is  singularly  like  it. 
An  account  of  the  "  dead  house  "  in  the  Chinese  quarter 
of  San  Francisco  says:  "  The  dying  receive  little  or  no 
attention  and  are  generally  hustled  off  to  the  death  houses, 
where  they  end  their  days  amid  such  grim  surroundings 
as  the  boxed-up  bones  of  Chinamen  awaiting  shipment 
home.     Often  they  die  unattended. " 

Let  us  imagine  a  portion  of  the  cave-dwellers  on  their 
tramp  northward  to  have  detached  themselves  from  the 
rest,  and  by  force  of  circumstances  easily  imagined,  be- 
come warlike  enough  to  go  where  they  pleased  in  search 
of  a  desirable  habitat.  They  would  naturally  turn  their 
steps  southward,  and  as  they  got  into  warmer  regions 
than  those  where  the  temperature  of  their  dwellings  of 
snow  had  to  be  kept  below  freezing  point,  lest  they 
should  melt  away,  where  clothes  of  fur  were  necessary 
even  in  summer  time,  and  where  scarcity  of  fuel  forced 
them  to  eat  their  food  uncooked,  they  would  soon  discard 
their  clothing,  and,  of  course,  have  no  need  of  fire.  Now, 
Chinese  history  begins  with  describing  the  nucleus  of  the 
Chinese  Nation  as  "a  little  horde  of  wanderers  roving 
among  the  forests  of  Shan-se,  without  houses,  without 
clothing,  without  fire  to  dress  their  victuals,  and  subsisting 
on  the  spoils  of  the  chase,  eked  out  with  roots  and  insects, " 
who,  coming  from  down  the  North,  established  small 
colonies  on  the  fertile  plains  of  the  modern  province  of 
that  name,  and,  settling  there,  ceased  to  be  nomads  and 
became  agriculturalists.  There,  history  goes  on  to  say, 
they  were  able  to  repel  invasion  from  the  aborigines,  for 
which  purpose  only  defensive  ferocity  was  necessary,  and 
in  aid  of  which,  as  a  means  of  securing  peace,  we  may 
readily  suppose  they  brought  to  bear  the  same  spirit  of 
fair  dealing  which  now  prompts  the  Greenlanders  in  their 
commerce  with  the  Danes  to  leave  it  for  the  latter  to  fix 


THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL   VIRTUE.  159 

the  price  of  what  they  purchase,  and  which  prompted 
Penn,  the  Quaker,  in  his  dealings  with  the  red  men  of 
Pennsylvania,  to  act  justly  so  that  of  the  treaty  he  made 
with  them  Voltaire  could  say  that  it  was  the  only  one 
never  sworn  to,  and  the  only  one  never  broken.  And 
thus  enjoying  peace  and  plenty,  only  such  qualities  of 
mind  and  heart  as  those  Greenlanders  now  so  notably 
evince  were  needed  to  ensure  for  the  new  nation,  while 
yet  its  blood  was  uncontaminated  with  Tartar  mixtures, 
the  attainment  of  a  civilization  worthily  named  "  hospita- 
ble and  contemplative,"  rendering  the  enjoyers  of  it 
^'mild,  just  and  frugal,  kindly  and  polished."  If  the  de- 
velopment thus  favorably  begun  and  for  a  long  period 
rapidly  progressing  has  been  arrested,  as  it  is  often  re- 
marked that  Chinese  civilization  seems  to  have  been,  it 
should  be  charged  to  the  account  of  war  and  the  Tartars. 
The  oblique  eyes  of  the  Chinese,  which  is  considered 
good  proof  that  they  came  originally  from  the  far  North, 
again  assimilates  them  to  the  Eskimos.  But  do  they 
not  still  remain  as  oval-eyed  as  these  last  ?  If  they  do 
the  question  arises:  If  six  or  eight  thousand  years  have 
not  sufficed  to  efface  the  supposed  effects  of  the  snow- 
glare  in  any  clearly  perceptible  degree,  how  many  years 
of  exposure  to  snow-glare  was  needed  to  so  impress  its 
stamp  in  the  first  place  ?  A  question  relating  to  the 
antiquity  of  man.  That  the  Eskimos  are  as  good  as  a 
people  need  be,  and  at  the  same  time  singularly  adverse 
to  warfare,  will  by  most  men  be  accepted  as  proving  not 
only  that  peaceful  conditions  favor  the  evolution  of 
goodness,  but  that  they  are  essential  to  it.  Unfortu- 
nately it  proves  also  that  a  people  who  will  not  fight  can- 
not hold  their  own  in  this  warring  world,  so  as  to  exem- 
plify on  any  large  scale  the  advantages  of  goodness. 
Driven  out  of  the  habitable  world,  the  cave-dwellers  and 
their  descendants  have  had  small  chance  for  converting 
their  goodness  into  happiness,  and  soon  their  seed  will 
be  known  no  more  on  land  or  snow,  and  their  pattern 


160  THE  EVOLUTION  OF  SOCIAL    VIRTUE. 

lost  forever.  Certainly,  the  evolutionary  experiment  in 
their  case  of  making  a  people  good  in  conduct  by  means 
of  security  and  peace  has  been  a  failure.  At  best  a  hint 
and  a  hope  is  all  the  world  has  got  from  the  example  of 
the  forty  thousand  who  yet  crouch  in  caves  or  ice  tomes, 
dirty  and  vermin-bitten,  contented  though  they  be.  And 
for  aught  we  know,  many  a  race  as  good  and  peaceful  as 
they  may  before  now  have  been  swept  out  of  existence 
by  races  ferocious  and  bad  as  we.  Yet  untiring  evolu- 
tion still  goes  on  as  if  aiming  at  creating  some  time  or 
other  a  world  wherein  good  men  can  live  and  peaceful 
races  persist.  But  how  ?  The  influences  which  have 
availed  to  secure  orderly  conditions  within  territorial 
limits  of  nations  seem  never  to  have  come  into  play 
beyond  such  limits.  Neither  the  law  of  love  nor  the 
golden  rule,  both  considered  so  good  in  respect  to  deal- 
ings of  man  with  man,  seems  yet  to  have  been  thought 
of  as  applying  to  dealings  of  nation  with  nation.  And 
yet  if  man  is  ever  to  attain  to  any  ideal  state  of  good- 
ness it  must  be  while  sheltered  by  long-continued  peace- 
ful conditions.  The  problem  to  solve  is  how  a  peaceable 
nation  can  keep  its  peace  without  going  to  war.  Perhaps 
the  superior  mechanical  skill  and  greater  wealth  of  Euro- 
pean nations  may  yet  become  joined  to  peaceful  disposi- 
tions and  furnish  the  solution. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

HINDU    YOGA. 

According  to  the  Vedanta  philosophy  man  first  be- 
comes man  when  he  forgets  he  is  god.  He  is  created 
by  nothing  but  the  obscuration  of  his  own  consciousness, 
and  he  can  again  become  god  simply  by  returning  to  his 
original  knowledge  of  himself.  Thus  he  may  re-discover 
himself  and  know  that  he  has  always  been  god.  It  is 
this  re-discovery  of  himself  that  the  Sanskrit  word  yoga, 
literally  joined,  is  commonly  used  to  express.  But  the 
re-discovery  is  not  made  as  knowledge  is  ordinarily 
obtained ;  and  the  searcher  must  undergo  a  sort  of  trans- 
formation before  he  can  receive  it.  It  is  only  in  the 
last  stage  to  which  persistent  practice  can  consciously 
carry  the  yogi,  that  of  Samadhi,  that  it  comes  to  him  as 
an  ecstatic  influx  touching  at  once  both  intellect  and 
will,  filling  the  one  with  light  and  the  other  with  joy,  as 
if  in  tracing  his  lineage  backward  towards  its  beginning 
he  had  come  to  that  link  in  the  chain  of  causation  where 
love  and  wisdom  are  as  yet  undivergent,  and  can  be 
conceived  only  as  one.  The  means  or  ways  of  attain- 
ing yoga,  which  we  will  term  '■^ yoga  practice,"  all  resolve 
themselves  into  concentration  of  mind.  And  to  this 
concentration  Hinduism,  which  is  both  philosophy  and 
religion,  makes  all  its  vast  collection  of  gods  of  every 
degree,  all  its  countless  temples,  with  their  idols  and 
symbols,  in  which  those  gods  are  worshipped,  all  its  the- 
ology and  ritual  of  devotion,  but  the  subservient  means. 
For  yoga  is  above  and  beyond  all  these;  they  merely 
conduct  the  devotee  up  to  it,  and  at  its  portals  vanish  as 


162  HINDU  YOGA. 

guides  and  ushers  should.  To  the  whole  thing,  the  work 
and  what  is  worked  for,  the  term  yoga  is  commonly  ap- 
plied, just  as  in  old  Chinese  literature  the  word  tao  is, 
which  can  mean  way  to  travel  on,  but  when  used  in  relation 
to  the  practice  in  question  means  the  way  in  which  it  is 
performed,  the  method,  art  and  mystery  of  it,  as  plainly 
appears  on  pages  233,  239  and  251  of  Mr.  Giles'  transla- 
tion of  Chaung  Tzu^  wherein  it  is  also  sometimes  made 
to  mean  the  first  principle  of  Nature,  or  the  one  imper- 
sonal God.  But  the  same  Chinese  word,  when  placed 
as  second  syllable  in  "Shinto,"  which  means  literally 
"way  of  the  gods,"  seems  there  to  signify  a  way  to 
travel  on,  leading  to  a  paradise  called  "The  Land  of 
the  Gods,"  and  not  to  a  state  of  being,  which  Hindu  Yoga 
may  be  properly  termed. 

Vedantism  does  not  recognize  yoga  practice  as  good 
for  any  other  purpose  than  getting  out  of  earth-life  and 
getting  back  to  Brahman,  and  thereby  obtaining  release 
from  repeated  re-births  which  must  otherwise  go  on  in  a 
series  without  end  while  the  present  universe  lasts. 
Accordingly,  the  supernatural  gifts  that  come  of  it  are 
disregarded  as  disturbing  allurements  merely,  not  worth 
being  considered  by  one  who  treads  the  path  that  leads 
to  the  god,  that  himself  is.  Miiller  has  truly  said  that 
we  know  very  little  about  yoga.  Possibly  he  thinks  it 
beneath  an  European's  notice.  Others,  willing  to  notice 
it,  have  ventured  the  guess  that  all  its  incontestable 
phenomena  are  due  to  self-magnetism,  but  the  persever- 
ing student  for  whose  benefit  the  following  summary  of 
the  principal  systems  of  yoga  of  which  we  have  accounts 
have  been  made,  will  be  more  likely  to  dismiss  the  self- 
magnetism  theory  as  far  too  scant  to  cover  the  facts,  and 
to  find  in  them  the  stirring  of  an  inner  man  quite  worthy 
to  be  named  soul,  attended  by  phenomena  which  go 
towards  proving  experimentally,  and  not  inspirationally, 
emotionally  or  metaphysically,  that  man  in  his  wholeness 
is  a  being  great  enough  to  be  trusted  with  his  own  des- 


HINDU  YOGA.  163 

tiny.  If  a  study  of  yoga  should  result  in  the  conclusion 
that  its  whole  meaning  has  never  yet  been  found  out; 
it  would  not  be  wonderful,  for  the  world  is  yet  young. 
And  the  true  student  should  not  be  sorry  to  know  that  a 
field  of  investigation  had  opened  before  him  of  wider  ex- 
tent than  any  other  that  has  yet  been  explored,  or  even 
known  to  exist. 

Hatha   Yoga. 

Quietude  being  essential  to  yoga  it  could  not  have 
arisen  in  very  early  and  therefore  rude  and  turbulent 
times,  as  there  is  proof  that  ancestor  worship  did.  But 
it  is  old  enough  to  be  largely  treated  of  in  the  primitive 
Hindu  scripture.  The  Vedas  contain  it,  the  Upanishads, 
for  instance,  being  devoted  principally  to  it,  and  the 
Vedanta  gives  name  to  what  is  considered  its  higher 
branch.  The  other  or  lower  branch,  however,  must  have 
come  first,  because  it  is  the  more  simple  and  practical 
and  the  less  religious  and  philosophical,  and  because  its 
phenomena  will  be  seen  to  have  furnished  the  basis  on 
which  Hindu  metaphysics  was  built,  or  at  least  to  have 
furnished  hints  for  the  hypotheses  which  formed  that 
basis.  Therefore  the  Hatha  has  precedence  here  of  the 
Vedanta  or  Rajah. 

An  approved  presentation  of  the  former  is  ^'-  \.\i^  Hatha 
Yoga  Pradipika  "  of  Swatmaram  Swafni,  of  which  an  Eng- 
lish translation  was  published  in  1893.  Of  its  four  chap- 
ters the  first  contains  some  introductory  matter — a  cau- 
tion to  secrecy,  a  description  of  a  proper  habitation  for 
the  student  or  practicer,  which  must  be  secluded  but 
pleasant  and  with  agreeable  surroundings  —  prescribes 
correct  habits  and  good  moral  conduct  and  certain  re- 
ligious observances — directs  the  postures  proper  to  be 
assumed  in  performing  the  various  exercises,  which  post- 
ures, however,  may  be  here  omitted  as  unsuited  to  people 
who  do  not  sit  cross-legged,  though  much  stress  is  laid 
upon  them  in  the  book,  which  enjoins,  in  connection  with 


164  HINDU  YOGA. 

them,  certain  mental  attitude,  such  as  contemplating  on 
Brahman,  concentrating  on  the  Nadis,  or  sounds  coming 
from  the  yogin's  own  breast,  and  fixing  the  eyes  on  the 
tip  of  the  nose  with  a  concentrated  mind.  The  chapter 
also  recommends  a  moderate  diet,  defined  to  mean  pleas- 
ant and  sweet  food  in  quantity  to  leave  one-fourth  of  the 
stomach  empty.  The  second  chapter  treats  of  Franya?tia, 
or  breathing  practice.  It  prescribes  various  methods  for 
drawing  in,  retaining  and  letting  out  the  breath,  for  ex- 
haling and  holding  out,  and  for  arresting  the  breathing 
without  regard  to  inhalation  or  exhalation.  Puraka  is 
the  term  for  inhalation,  Rechaka  the  one  for  exhalation, 
and  Kumbhaka  the  one  for  retention.  Here  is  an  example 
of  these  methods.  "  The  yogi,  assuming  the  Padmasana 
posture  (each  breathing  has  its  appropriate  posture) 
should  draw  in  the  Prana  (breath)  through  the  Ida^  or 
left  nostril,  and  having  retained  it  as  long  as  he  can, 
exhale  it  through  the  Pingala.^  or  right  nostril.  Again 
inhaling  the  Prana  through  the  Pingala,  he  should  per- 
form Kumbhaka  (retention)  as  laid  down  in  the  books, 
and  should  again  slowly  exhale  it  through  the  Ida.  He 
should  perform  Puraka  (inhalation)  through  the  same 
nostril  by  which  he  performed  Rechaka,  and  having  re- 
strained the  breath  to  the  utmost  (till  he  is  covered  with 
perspiration  or  till  his  body  shakes),  should  exhale  it 
slowly  and  never  fast,  as  that  would  diminish  the  energy 
of  the  body."  He  should  perform  these  breathings  four 
times  a  day — in  the  early  morning,  at  mid-day,  evening 
and  midnight,  slowly  increasing  the  number  from  three 
each  time  to  eighty.  The  effect  is  to  "render  the  body 
slender  and  bright."  Although  in  the  translation  the 
Ida  is  named  as  being  the  left  nostril  and  the  Pingala  as 
the  right  one,  these  words  more  appropriately  designate 
two  supposed  conduits  which  connect  with  the  nostrils 
and  thence  conduct  throughout  the  whole  body  a  certain 
vital  air  that  enters  with  the  atmosphere  air,  but  is  quite 
a  different  thing  from  it.     The  Ida  is  said  to  lie  on  the 


HINDU  YOGA.  165 

left  and  the  Pingala  on  the  right  of  another  more  impor- 
tant conduit  named  the  Sushumna.  All  three  are  again 
included  in  the  term  nadi,  of  which  there  are  supposed 
to  be  seventy-two  thousand,  all  leading  down  from  the 
throat  to  the  Kutidali,  in  the  pelvic  region,  and  connect- 
ing with  it. 

Yogis  of  phlegmatic  temperament  are  directed  to  go 
through  a  course  of  preparation  before  undertaking 
Pranayama,  which  course  consists  in:  (i)  cleansing  the 
gullet  with  a  strip  of  cloth  swallowed  and  then  withdrawn 
(the  first  introduction  to  be  gradual,  at  the  rate  of  one 
span's  length  daily);  (2)  enemas  of  water;  (3)  cleansing 
the  nostrils  by  putting  up  a  thread  and  drawing  it  out 
by  way  of  the  mouth;  (4)  looking  without  winking  at  a 
minute  object  with  concentrated  mind  till  tears  come; 
(5)  with  head  bent  down  turning  the  viscera  of  the  body 
to  right  and  left;  (6)  breathing  in  and  out  rapidly,  like 
a  blacksmith's  bellows.  Internal  concentration  causing 
the  stomach  to  empty  itself  by  vomiting  is  also  recom- 
mended. 

When  by  a  proper  course  of  Pranyama  the  nadis  have 
been  purified,  the  breath  easily  forces  itself  into  the 
mouth  of  the  Sushumna  and  enters  it.  This  gives  "  steadi- 
ness to  the  mind,"  and  various  miraculous  powers  result. 
The  signs  of  perfection  in  Hatha  Yoga  are:  "the  body 
becomes  lean,  the  speech  eloquent,  the  inner  sounds  (to 
be  hereafter  mentioned  in  detail)  are  distinctly  heard, 
the  eyes  are  clear  and  bright,  the  body  is  freed  from  all 
disease,  the  seminal  fluid  is  concentrated,  the  digestive 
fire  is  increased  and  the  nadis  are  purified." 

Next  there  is  a  description  of  three  Bandhas :  * '  The  Uddi- 
ana  Bandha,"  says  the  commentary, "  seem  to  be  this :  By 
a  very  strong  expiration  the  lungs  are  emptied  and  driven 
against  the  upper  part  of  the  thorax,  carrying  the  dia- 
phragm along  with  them,  and  the  intestines  are  taken  up 
and  fill  the  vacant  space."  The  stomach  is  by  this  made 
so   slender  it   might  be   compassed  by  a   span.     Mula 


166  HINDU  YOGA. 

Bandha  is  this:  Pressing  the  Yoni  with  the  ankle,  con- 
tract the  anus  and  draw  upwards  the  Apana  (or  down- 
ward flowing  breath).  Again,  "Pressing  the  anus  with 
the  ankle,  contract  the  air  forcibly  and  constantly  until 
the  breath  goes  upwards." 

To  perform  the  Jalandhara  Bandha  "contract  the 
throat  and  press  the  chin  firmly  against  the  breast  (four 
inches  from  the  heart)."  The  Viparitakarani  Bandha, 
which  is  practiced  for  the  purpose  of  making  the  "  moon," 
which  is  at  the  root  of  the  palate,  change  places  with  the 
"sun,"  which  is  near  the  navel,  is  to  be  learned  only 
from  the  teacher. 

The  third  chapter  treats  of  the  ten  Mudras  which  are 
to  be  practiced  for  the  purpose  of  "rousing  the  great 
goddess  Kundalini  who  sleeps  closing  the  (lower)  mouth 
of  the  Sushumna. "  These  are  said  to  "destroy  old  age 
and  death,"  having  been  given  out  by  the  god  Siva,  and 
to  confer  the  eight  Siddhis,  or  miraculous  powers.  They 
are  much  sought  after  by  all  Siddhas  (possessors  of  such 
powers)  and  are  difficult  to  obtain  even  by  the  Devas 
(lesser  gods).  Concerning  them  it  is  added:  "This 
should  be  carefully  kept  secret  as  a  box  of  diamonds  and 
should  not  be  told  to  anybody — just  as  the  illicit  con- 
nection with  a  married  woman  of  noble  family." 

Maha  Mudra,  the  first  of  the  ten,  is  thus  performed: 
"  Pressing  the  anus  with  the  left  heel  and  stretching  out 
the  right  leg,  take  hold  of  the  toes  with  your  hand.  Then 
practice  the  Jalandhara  Bandha  (lately  described),  and 
draw  the  breath  through  the  Sushumna.  Then  the  Kunda- 
lini becomes  straight,  just  as  a  coiled  snake  does  when 
struck,  and  the  Ida  and  P'  igala  become  dead,  because 
the  breath  goes  out  of  them.  Then  the  breath  should  be 
let  out  very  slowly,  and  never  quickly."  Maha  Bandha 
(«V.)  comes  next,  and  is  thus  described:  "Having  re- 
strained the  breath  as  long  as  possible  he  should  then 
breathe  out  slowly.  He  should  practice  first  on  the  left 
side  and  then  on  the  right."     This  is  said  to  stop  the 


HINDU  YOGA.  167 

upward  course  of  the  breath  through  the  Nadis  except 
Sushumna,  and  bring  about  the  union  of  them  with  the 
Sushumna,  and  also  to  "  enable  the  mind  to  remain  fixed 
between  the  two  eyebrows." 

But  these  two  Mudras  are  said  to  have  no  value  with- 
out a  third  named  the  Maha  Vedha,  which  is  to  be  thus 
performed:  The  yogi  .  .  .  "  should  draw  in  his  breath 
with  a  concentrated  mind  and  stop  the  upward  and  down- 
ward course  of  the  breath  by  the  Jalandhara  Bandha. 
Resting  at  the  same  time  his  body  on  his  hands  placed 
on  the  ground,  he  should  repeatedly  but  gently  seat  and 
raise  himself.  The  body  assumes  a  death-like  aspect. 
Then  he  should  breathe  out."  The  Kechari  Mudra  re- 
quires the  following  preparation  :  By  slight  daily  repeated 
cuttings  continued  during  six  months,  the  ligament  is 
severed  that  holds  down  the  tongue,  which  then,  by 
repeatedly  pulling  it  out,  is  made  long  enough  to  touch 
the  eyebrows.  The  Mudra  is  performed  by  turning  up 
the  tongue  and  making  it  enter  the  hole  in  the  palate 
where  the  three  Nadis  join,  at  the  same  time  "fixing 
the  eyes  firmly  between  the  brows," 

The  Vajroli  Mudra  which  is  said  to  give  the  five  Sid- 
dhis  even  to  one  who  lives  an  ordinary  life,  with  the  Ama- 
roli  and  Sahajoli,  which  are  kindred  to  it,  occupy  twenty 
Sutras  which  remain  untranslated  on  account  of  their 
peculiar  character,  and  will  not  be  further  noticed  here 
for  the  reasons  that  the  commentary  claims  that  they  are 
not  to  be  understood  literally  and  are  besides  incomplete 
in  some  points,  which  are  left  to  be  filled  by  verbal  instruc- 
tions of  the  guru.  If  any  such  arcanum  as  this  Vajroli 
lie  in  yoga  it  will  be  apt  to..-disclose  itself  soon  or, late  to 
the  practicer  who  perseveres. 

The  Shakati  Chalana,  named  as  the  last  of  the  ten 
mudras,  is  next  described.  Having  inhaled  through  the 
right  nostril  the  yogin  should  retain  the  breath  in  a  pecul- 
iar way  to  be  learned  only  from  a  Guru,  and  "  manipulate 
the  Kundalini  for  about  an  hour  and  a  half,  both  at  morn- 


168  HINDU   YOGA. 

ing  and  evening  twilights. "  Some  light  might  be  obtained 
regarding  what  is  thus  left  obscure  by  referring  to  the 
context,  of  which  here  are  a  few  passages :  "As  one  forces 
open  a  door  with  a  key,  so  should  the  yogi  force  open  the 
door  of  J/^/l'^//^  (state  of  bliss)  by  the  Kundalini."  "The 
Kundalini  gives  Mukti  (deliverance)  to  the  Yogis  and 
bondage  to  the  fools.  He  who  knows  her  knows  Yoga." 
"He  who  causes  that  Shakti  (the  Kundalini)  to  move 
(from  the  Midadhara  in  the  pelvic  region  upwards)  is 
freed  without  doubt."  "  Between  the  Ganges  (Ida)  and 
Jamuna  (Pingala)  there  sits  the  young  widow  inspiring 
pity.  He  (the  Yogi)  should  despoil  her  forcibly,  for  it 
leads  one  to  the  supreme  seat  of  Vishnu."  "  You  should 
awake  the  sleeping  serpent  (Kundalini)  by  taking  hold  of 
its  tail."  "Seated  in  the  Vajrasena  posture,  firmly  take 
hold  of  the  feet  near  the  ankle  and  slowly  beat  with  them 
Xh^Kanda  "  (a  something  below  the  navel  from  which  the 
72,000  Nadis  issue).  "By  moving  the  Kundalini  fearlessly 
for  about  an  hour  and  a  half,  she  is  drawn  upwards  a  little 
through  the  Sushumna,"  which  process  it  is  said  "  surely 
opens  the  mouth  of  the  Sushumna  and  the  breath  natu- 
rally goes  through  it."  Whether  by  manipulation  of  the 
Kundalini  or  other  means  this  effect  is  produced,  it  seems 
to  be  the  object  primarily  aimed  at  in  Hatha  Yoga  work. 
The  fruits  of  the  practice  of  Hatha  Yoga,  taken  in  the 
order  of  their  mention,  are  the  following: 

1.  The  eight  Siddhis,  viz. :  am'ma  (the  power  to  assimi- 
late oneself  with  an  atom) ;  tnahima  (the  power  to  ex- 
pand oneself  into  space) ;  taghima  (the  power  to  be  as 
light  as  cotton  or  other  similar  thing) ;  garima  (the  power 
to  grow  as  heavy  as  anything) ;  prapti  (the  power  of  reach- 
ing anywhere,  even  to  the  moon) ;  prakamya  (the  power 
of  having  all  wishes  of  whatever  description  realized) ; 
isatva  (power  to  create) ;  vasitva  (power  to  command  all). 

2.  Freedom  from  death  and  from  old  age. 

3.  Rejuvenescence  and  perpetual  youth, 

4.  Beauty. 


HINDU  YOGA.  169 

5.  Ability  to   "do  and  undo." 

6.  Exemption  from  hunger  and  thirst,  also  from  indo- 
lence. 

7.  Floating  on  water. 

8.  The  attainment  of  anything  in  the  three  worlds. 

9.  Invulnerability  to  poisons. 

10.  Removal  of  wrinkles  and  gray  hair. 

11.  Freedom  from  disease. 

12.  Exemption  from  the  effects  of  Karma. 

13.  Immortality  and  the  eight  Siddhis  (named  above). 

14.  Power  to  attract  the  damsels  of  the  Siddhas  (or 
Mahatmas). 

Finally,  and  far  beyond  the  Siddhis,  comes  the  grand 
result  of  Mukti  or  emancipation  (from  re-birth)  and  con- 
scious junction  with  Brahman. 

These  powers  are  certainly  all  could  be  desired;  in 
fact  they  stop  nowhere  short  of  omnipotence,  omnipres- 
ence and  omniscience.  But  we  must  allow  for  Eastern 
hyperbole. 

According  to  the  commentary  the  fourth  and  last 
chapter  is  wholly  devoted  to  Rajah  Yoga.  But  a  care- 
ful study  of  the  book  will  probably  convince  the  reader 
that  it  cannot  thus  be  divided  in  two  parts  unless  by  a 
wrenching  that  does  violence  to  its  meaning  as  a  whole; 
and  show,  moreover,  that  as  a  whole  the  proper  title  of 
it  is  Hatha  Yoga.  This  fourth  chapter  may  be  a  sort  of 
supplement  that  in  course  of  time  has  grown  upon  the 
original  compilation.  It  deals  a  good  deal  with  the  re- 
sults of  the  methods  of  practice  contained  in  the  others, 
specifying  Rajah  Yoga  as  one  of  them,  and  it  amplifies 
some  of  those  methods,  but  gives  no  new  ones. 

American  Experie?tces. 

It  is  in  common  experience  that  long  and  close  concen- 
tration upon  any  given  part  of  the  body  will  induce  in  it 
sensations,  and  sometimes  even  movements.  Control  over 
unused  muscles  may  in  that  way  be  obtained.     An  expe- 


170  HINDU  YOGA. 

rienced  physician  will  tell  his  patient  to  keep  his  mind  off 
his  carbuncle,  and  "Don't  think  about  your  disease"  is 
every-day  advice  given  by  visiting  neighbors.  While  it  is 
claimed  for  Hatha  Yoga  that  the  breathings  can  exert 
control  over  the  mind  through  their  function  of  supply- 
ing arterialized  blood  to  the  brain,  thus  controlling  men- 
tal by  physical  action,  it  is  on  the  other  hand  claimed  that 
mere  persistent  concentration  of  the  mind  will  set  up 
those  very  breathings,  thus  controlling  physical  action 
by  mental.  And  a  story  is  related  of  a  student  whose 
teacher  made  him  sit  meditating  in  silence  twelve  years, 
and  at  last  commanded  him  to  pronounce  the  sacred  word 
O.  M.  (which  is  often  divided  into  three  syllables,  thus 
A  U M.).  He  did  so,  with  the  following  result:  "When 
the  Sanyasi  came  to  the  first  syllable,  Rechaka,  or  the  pro- 
cess by  which  the  air  in  the  lungs  is  pumped  out,  set  in 
naturally.  When  he  finished  the  second  syllable,  Puraka, 
or  the  process  of  inhalation,  set  in.  At  the  end  of  the 
third  syllable,  Kumbhaka,  or  the  process  of  retention,  set 
in,"  And  then  all  else  immediately  followed.  "In  a  short 
time  he  had  passed  the  initial  stages  of  Fratyshara,  Dhyana 
and  Dharana,  and  settled  into  the  pure  and  elevated  state 
of  Samadhi."  This  story,  whether  true  or  not,  illustrates 
the  largeness  of  the  claim  in  behalf  of  mental  yoga  that  it 
brings  physical  yoga  with  it,  provided  the  mental  processes 
take  the  form  of  long-continued  silent  concentration,  and 
also  the  further  claim  that  what  it  thus  brings  is  important, 
since  the  Pranyamaof  the  student  brought  him  soon  into 
perfect  absorption.  But  both  points  are  better  illustrated 
by  phenomena,  which,  if  not  known  in  India,  have  been 
experienced  here  in  America  and  in  these  times,  as  will 
presently  be  shown  in  detail.  And  the  occurrence  of  these 
modern  phenomena  also  suggests  the  thought  that  like 
occurrences  in  remote  times  may  have  given  rise  to  the 
postures,  breathings  and  movements  which  make  up  the 
Hatha  practice,  whose  origin,  so  bizarre  and  anomalous 
are  they,  might  else  remain  unaccounted  for.   Some  con- 


HINDU  YOGA.  ITl 

templative  solitary  in  the  valley  of  the  Indus  may,  as  a 
consequence  of  long  concentrating  on  a  star,  an  idea,  or 
on  vacancy,  have  found  himself  moved  to  perform  invol- 
untarily all  the  Kumbhakas  and  Mudras  in  their  various 
combinations;  and  these  being  found  to  be  associated 
with  magical  power  others  may  have,  with  volition,  imi- 
tated them  in  hopes  to  obtain  like  power.  Thus  Hatha 
Yoga  may  have  originated.  What  has  of  late  years  come 
to  my  knowledge  as  occurring  in  this  country  after  long 
practice  of  simple  concentration,  undertaken  without  any 
thought  of  yoga  or  knowledge  that  there  was  such  a 
thing,  is  the  following: 

To  begin  with  the  Asanas.  These,  though  unsuited  to 
people  who  sit  in  chairs,  have  nevertheless  persistently 
tried  to  force  themselves  upon  the  practicers.  A  leg 
has  jerked  itself  upward  and  pressed  the  sole  of  its  foot 
against  the  other  as  high  up  as  seemed  possible;  this  has 
happened  hundreds  of  times.  The  posture  here  imitated 
is  sitting  on  a  foot,  and  its  efficacy  is  supposed  to  lie  in 
the  pressure  upon  nerve-centres  in  the  foot,  leg  and 
region  of  the  perineum.  Another  asana  resembling  the 
"plant  balance"  of  modern  gymnastics  is  described 
thus:  "Plant  your  hands  firmly  on  the  ground  and  sup- 
port your  body  on  your  elbows,  pressing  against  the  sides 
of  your  loins.  Raise  your  feet  in  the  air  stiff  and  straight 
on  a  level  with  the  head."  This  position  was  distinctly 
attempted  while  the  practicer  was  seated  in  an  easy 
chair,  and  only  failed  of  completeness  because  the  back 
of  it  kept  the  head  from  falling  to  the  level  of  the  feet. 
The  legs  were  lifted  from  the  floor  and  thrust  out  stiffly, 
while  the  weight  of  the  whole  body,  except  the  head, 
was  made  to  rest  on  the  elbows,  they  resting  on  the  arms 
of  the  chair.  The  attempt  was  repeated  only  once,  but 
a  great  number  of  times  the  elbows  were  pressed  against 
the  sides  with  a  force  that  seemingly  could  not  have 
been  voluntarily  exerted,  and  as  often  have  hammered 
themselves  violently   and  repeatedly  against  the  sides, 


173  HINDU  YOGA. 

giving  excellent  wa^ja^^  to  both  liver  and  spleen — though 
this  could  hardly  be  called  an  asana.  The  Shavasana 
"for  removing  fatigue  and  inducing  calmness  of  mind  " 
is  described  as  lying  on  one's  back  at  full  length,  like  a 
corpse.  Often  when  lying  on  his  side  the  practicer  has 
been  turned  over  on  his  back,  not  impelled  to  turn  by 
any  influence  acting  upon  his  will,  but  turned  as  by  a 
power  foreign  to  it,  though  apparently  using  his  own 
muscles.  A  curious  sensation  often  felt  seemed  intended 
to  reproduce  on  the  feet,  ankles,  and  seat  of  the  body, 
the  compression  which  is  obtainable  by  sitting  on  the  feet, 
Eastern  fashion.  It  was  just  as  if  a  foreign  body  were 
pressed  against  the  parts  with  a  force  equal  to  what  they 
would  feel  in  the  positions  of  Hatha  Yoga.  Sometimes 
several  of  the  parts  in  question  were  thus  simultaneously 
acted  on. 

The  Mtidras.  Of  these,  one  termed  The  Maha  Vedha, 
is  performed  by  slightly  rising  and  reseating  one's  self 
gently  and  repeatedly.  This  was  exactly  reproduced. 
One  of  the  six  acts  recommended  for  putting  in  good 
bodily  condition  those  who  would  practice  yoga  is  the 
Nauli,  thus  described:  "With  the  head  bent  down  one 
should  turn  right  and  left  the  intestines  of  the  stomach 
with  the  slow  motion  of  a  small  eddy  in  the  river." 
Something  like  this  interior  movement  is  produced  by 
one  process  of  the  Swedish  movement-cure.  It  consists 
in  sitting  on  a  stool,  bending  forward  as  far  as  possible, 
and  making  the  trunk  of  the  body  to  rotate  like  the 
spoke  of  a  horizontal  wheel,  the  head  representing  the 
tire  and  the  seat  the  hub.  Now,  it  was  just  this  Swedish 
movement  that,  in  the  case  of  two  persons,  was  set  up  as 
often  as  Kumbhaka  was  practiced;  neither  of  them  hav- 
ing an  idea  of  such  a  result.  The  fiauli  mudra  is  stated 
to  be  the  most  important  of  all  the  Hatha  practices,  and 
the  bodily  rotation  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  effective 
of  the  Swedish  ones. 

"Looking  fixedly  at  the  spot  between  the  eyebrows" 


HINDU  YOGA.  173 

is  in  several  places  named  and  enjoined.  This  was  re- 
produced numberless  times,  extending  through  many 
years.  Thinking  of  nothing  seemed  most  readily  to 
have  that  effect.  The  eyeballs  would  as  of  themselves 
roll  upward  as  far  as  they  could  go,  and  hold  themselves 
there. 

The  Shambhavi-TCiMC^XTi.  consists  in  fixing  the  mind  on 
some  part  of  the  body,  and  the  eyes  rigidly  and  unwink- 
ing on  some  external  object.  Many  times  while  the 
practicer  was  concentrating  intently,  with  his  eyes  closed, 
they  would  open  of  themselves  and  fix  on  some  object 
within  their  range,  always  rigidly  and  without  winking, 
or  any  impulse  to  do  so,  while  the  concentration,  what- 
ever may  have  been  the  objective  of  it,  went  on  as 
before. 

"Direct  the  pupils  of  the  eyes  towards  the  light  by 
raising  the  eyebrows  a  little  upwards,"  says  the  book. 
Often  the  eyebrows  raised  themselves  as  if  to  get  out  of 
the  way  of  the  eyes.  In  all  the  above,  as  well  as  in  the 
movements  next  to  be  described,  an  intelligent  power 
beyond  reach  of  the  consciousness  of  the  practicer 
seemed,  so  to  speak,  to  take  him  out  of  his  own  hands, 
to  assume  control  of  his  voluntary  as  well  as  involuntary 
muscles  and  work  them  independently  of  his  will,  though, 
it  should  be  noted,  never  against  it. 

The  Bandhas  are  movements  of  the  internal  organs  by 
means  of  voluntary  muscles,  outside  of  and  near  them. 
One  of  these,  for  instance,  requires  that  certain  mus- 
cular contractions  be  made  which  will  have  the  effect 
of  forcing  the  breath  to  flow  through  the  Sushumna, 
"being  drawn  in  through  the  back  part  of  the  navel." 
This  seems  ridiculous  enough,  but  the  fact  that  such 
muscular  contractions  and  many  others  have  spontane- 
ously resulted  from  mental  concentration,  no  matter  on 
what,  though  it  cannot  make  sense  of  the  Hindu  three- 
thousand-year-old  theory  of  anatomy,  may  make  credible 
the  facts  it  undertakes  to  interpret.     The  movements  here 


174  HINDU  YOGA. 

alluded  to  were  frequent,  sudden  and  violent,  extending 
now  throughout  the  whole  trunk,  giving  each  of  its 
organs  a  salutary  "massage,"  and  now  involving  the 
legs  and  arms.  One  thus  handled  could  not  but  be 
reminded  by  it  of  the  Swedish  movement-cure,  if  he 
had  ever  tried  it,  though  the  yoga  exercises  far  excelled 
in  force  as  well  as  in  variety  those  of  the  cure.  Some- 
times the  muscles  of  the  front  of  the  chest  and  abdomen 
would  jerk  themselves  together  violently,  making  a  cable 
of  themselves  that  reached  from  pelvis  to  throat,  and 
sometimes  the  same  movement  would  be  directed  down- 
ward, pushing  everything  as  far  as  it  would  go.  Again 
the  whole  contents  of  the  abdomen  would  be  drawn  up 
and  against  the  backbone,  and  then  pushed  forward  so  as 
to  swell  them  out  tensely.  Again  the  abdomen  and  chest 
would,  by  turns,  be,  the  one  swelled  out  and  the  other 
simultaneously  shrunk  in,  and  this,  though  repeatedly 
done,  without  noticeable  movement  of  the  breath.  Again 
the  muscles  about  the  navel  would,  as  it  were,  draw  to- 
gether in  a  knot  all  the  organs  of  the  region,  squeezing 
them  violently  while  the  flanks  shrunk  as  violently  in. 
In  short,  every  conceivable  combination  of  movement  by 
which  the  muscles  of  the  trunk  can  act  upon  the  con- 
tents of  it,  were  at  times  gone  through,  and  all,  be  it 
noted,  in  a  progressive  way,  step  by  step,  and  each  step, 
once  attained,  held  on  to.  It  is  furthermore  noteworthy 
that  when  a  given  movement,  of  the  sort  which  has  just 
been  described,  or  one  of  the  breathings  yet  to  be  de- 
scribed, had  been  led  up  to  by  a  series  of  progressive  ones 
culminating  in  it  only  after  weeks  or  months  of  practice, 
then  each  subsequent  repetition  of  it  would  usually  be 
achieved  in  the  same  progressive  way,  seemingly  as  if, 
for  a  time  at  least,  the  more  difficult  had  to  be  preceded 
by  a  practice  of  the  less  difficult  in  serial  order,  as  well 
after  the  point  of  perfection  had  been  reached  as  before, 
each  repetition  being  a  brief  rehearsal  of  the  long  course 
of  practice  by  which  expertness  in  it  had  been  acquired. 


HINDU  YOGA.  175 

The  movements  just  described  reproduce  all  of  the 
important  exercises  called  mudras,  whose  office  is  to 
rouse  up  the  great  goddess  (Kundalini),  except  the 
Vajroli,  and  its  modifications  the  Sahajoli  and  Amaroli, 
which  requires  two  practicers,  the  Viparitakarani,  the 
method  of  which  is  not  disclosed,  but  left  for  the  teacher 
to  impart,  and  the  Kechari,  which  requires  the  ligament 
holding  down  the  tongue  to  be  first  cut;  though  a  rolling 
backward  of  the  tongue  against  the  palate  has  been 
repeatedly  attempted,  and  carried  as  far  as  could  be 
without  that  mutilation;  the  excepted  ones  being  by 
their  nature  not  reproducible  by  a  single  person  un- 
taught by  an  Indian  Guru,  and  with  an  uncut  tongue. 
The  distinctive  marks  by  which  these  recent  results  of 
mental  concentration  can  be  identified  with  Hatha  Yoga 
are  such  as  leave  no  room  for  supposing  mere  coincidence 
of  mistake. 

The  Uddiana  Bandha  that  has  been  before  described 
was  reproduced  in  a  manner  that  in  every  detail  was 
perfect,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  the  lungs  would  fly 
upward,  expelling  thereby  all  air  in  them,  was  startling. 

The  eight  Kumbhakas,  or  breathings,  named  in  the 
book,  were  reproduced  with  equal  fidelity  except  in  the 
following  respects:  The  nostrils  were  not  closed  with 
the  fingers,  nor  the  tongue  placed  between  or  protruded 
through  the  lips,  nor  any  hissing  sounds  made  in  drawing 
in  or  letting  out  the  breath,  though  the  tongue  made 
efforts  to  push  itself  forward,  and  distinctly,  as  just  said, 
rolled  itself  back  against  the  palate  as  if  attempting  the 
Kechari  Mudra.  The  breath  seemed  to  draw  itself  in, 
hold  itself  there  and  let  itself  out,  and  the  head  would 
bend  downward  so  as  to  press  the  chin  against  the  breast, 
as  directed  in  the  manual,  for  the  purpose  of  making  the 
retention  easy.  And  when  thus  retained  the  air  seemed 
to  expand  so  that  the  practicer  would  feel  it  "pervade 
the  whole  of  his  body  from  the  head  to  the  toe,"  as  the 
book  expresses  it.     There  was  no  distinction  made  as  to 


176  HINDU  YOGA. 

which  nostril  the  breath  should  enter  or  depart  by,  as  in 
the  book,  but  the  inhaling,  retaining  and  exhaling,  the 
expelling,  excluding  and  inhaling,  and  the  simple  stop- 
page in  mid-breathing  and  "holding  the  breath,"  all 
came  as  the  book  directs,  and  without  conscious  volition. 
As  a  result,  or  at  least  an  incident  of  our  American 
experiments,  there  came  a  remarkable  series  of  self- 
manipulations  which  might  be  likened  to  mesmeric  passes 
or  massage  movements.  The  mind  of  the  operator  not 
consciously  concurring,  they  could  hardly  be  classed  with 
the  one,  and  not  being  known  to  any  system  of  massage 
could  hardly  belong  with  the  other,  but  they  resembled 
both.  Like  the  reproductions  of  the  Mudras  and  Kum- 
bhakas,  they  arose  quite  independently  of,  though  never 
against,  the  will  of  the  practicer.  It  would  be  safe  to 
say  there  were  a  hundred  of  them,  of  all  degrees  of 
emphasis,  from  the  gentle  tapping  of  a  finger  to  the 
violent  kicking  out  of  a  leg;  all  following  at  the  touch 
of  a  mere  thought,  as  it  were — no,  of  a  mental  effort  in 
arrest  of  thought — and  as  quickly  as  any  electric  effect 
follows  the  touching  of  a  button.  Though  the  manipu- 
lations were  mostly  made  with  abnormal  force  and  with- 
out consciousness  of  any  effort  but  the  mental  one,  and 
generally  left  a  sense  of  well  being,  it  would  be  inexact 
to  say  there  was  no  resulting  fatigue,  yet  there  was  cer- 
tainly less  that  must  have  followed  intentional  exercises 
of  a  like  sort.  There  were  no  unmeaning  movements, 
but  all  seemed  to  be  devised  with  masterly  skill,  aiming 
at  curative  effects,  while  to  the  practicer  each  one  of 
them  was  new  and  original,  and  on  its  first  occurrence  a 
surprise. 

Safik/iya    Yoga. 

Quite  unlike  the  hand-book  of  yoga  practice,  which 
Swatmaram's  work  may  be  termed,  are  the  Sutras  of  the 
Sage  Kapila,  believed  to  be  no  other  than  god  Vishnou, 
son  of  Brahman,  in  the  fifth  of  his  twenty-four  incarna- 
tions.    These  seem  to  be  merely  a  series  of  philosoph- 


HINDU  YOGA.  177 

ical  propositions,  yet  their  propounder  claims  that  the 
study  of  them  will  surely  conduct  to  Samadhi  and  deliv- 
erance. Though  the  Sankhya  philosophy  admits  that 
the  ills  of  life  may  be  palliated  and  a  temporary  release 
from  re-births  be  obtained,  by  temporal  means  discov- 
erable by  reason,  and  devotional  observances  revealed 
by  God,  yet  it  declares  that  complete  and  final  deliver- 
ance from  re-birth  can  only  be  attained  by  what  is 
termed:  "A  method  different  from  both,  consisting  in  a 
discriminative  knowledge  of  perceptible  principles,  and 
of  the  imperceptible  one,  and  of  the  thinking  soul  " — 
or,  as  more  fully  set  forth  by  the  commentary:  "The 
accurate  discrimination  of  those  principles  into  which 
all  that  exists  is  distributed  by  the  Sankhya  philosophy; 
Vyakta,  that  which  is  perceived,  sensible,  discreet; 
Avyakta,  that  which  is  unperceived,  indiscreet,  and  /na, 
that  which  knows,  or  discriminates.  The  first  is  matter 
in  its  perceptible  modifications;  the  second  is  crude, 
unmodified  matter,  and  the  third  is  soul.  The  object  of 
the  Sankhya  Yoga  is  to  define  and  explain  these  three 
things,  the  correct  knowledge  of  which  is  in  itself  release 
from  worldly  bondage  and  exemption  from  exposure  to 
human  ills,  by  the  final  separation  of  soul  and  body." 

There  is  nothing  said  by  this  sage  of  any  postures, 
movements  or  breathings  of  the  body,  or  of  any  effort  of 
the  mind  save  what  is  implied  in  any  philosophical  study. 
In  other  yogas  the  knowledge  that  sets  the  soul  free 
from  re-birth  is  supposed  to  come  at  the  end  of  a  long 
course  of  practice  of  one  kind  or  other,  and  in  form  of 
intuition  or  spiritual  impression  such  as  makes  the  saint 
to  knozc  the  truth  after  he  has  quite  lost  his  reason  in 
ecstatic  entrancement.  But  Kapilas'  teaching  seems  to 
be  addressed  to  the  waking  reason  alone,  unenlightened 
by  any  supernatural  influx. 

Yet  following  on  the  promulgation  of  this  Sankhya 
philosophy  (so  called  from  its  being  an  enumeration  or 
analysis  of  the  universe),  and  claiming  to  be  in  general 


178  HINDU  YOGA. 

accordance  with  it,  came  an  elaborate  system  of  Sankhya 
Yoga,  first  embodied  in  the  Sutras  of  Patanjali,  a  work 
written  as  early  as  the  seventh  century  A.  D.,  and  of 
high  authority.  A  sample  of  his  method  of  intellectu- 
alizing  magic  practice  is  found  in  the  following  verses: 

"  I.   Now  an  exposition  of  yoga  is  to  be  made." 

"  2.  Yoga  is  the  suppression  of  the  transformations  of 
the  thinking  principle." 

"  3.   Then  the  seer  abides  in  himself." 

"  4.  But  otherwise  becomes  assimilated  with  trans- 
formations." 

"  5.  The  transformations  are  five-fold,  and  are  pain- 
ful or  not  painful." 

"  6.  Right  knowledge,  wrong  knowledge,  fancy,  sleep 
and  memory." 

"  7.  Right  knowledge  is  direct  cognition,  or  inference, 
or  testimony." 

"  8.  Wrong  knowledge  is  a  false  conception  of  a  thing 
whose  real  form  does  not  answer  to  it  in  reality." 

"  9.  Fancy  is  the  notion  called  into  being  having  noth- 
ing to  answer  to  it  in  reality." 

"  10.  That  transformation  which  has  nothingness  for 
its  basis  is  sleep." 

"  II.  Memory  is  not  allowing  a  thing  cognized  to 
escape." 

"  12.  Its  suppression  is  secured  by  application  and 
non-attachment." 

"  13.  Application  is  the  effort  towards  the  state 
(Stilhi)  in  which  the  mind  is  at  a  stand-still." 

"  14.  It  becomes  a  position  of  firmness  being  prac- 
ticed for  a  long  time  without  intermission  and  with  per- 
fect devotion." 

"  15.  The  consciousness  of  having  mastered  (every 
desire)  in  the  case  of  one  who  does  not  thirst  for  objects 
perceptible  or  scriptural,  is  non-attachment." 

"  16.  That  is  highest  wherein,  from  being  the  Purusa 


HINDU  YOGA.  179 

(soul)  there  is  entire  cessation  of  any,  the  least  desire 
for  the  Gunas  (things  of  sense)." 

The  yoga  practice  recommended  by  Patanjali  consists 
in  meditation  on  Kapilas'  25  categories  or  Tattvas, — the 
exercise  of  faith,  energy,  memory  and  discriminative 
judgment,  ardent  desire  to  attain  to  Samadhi,  devotion 
to  Iswara^  a  god  invented  to  help  contemplation,  con- 
stant repetition  of  and  intent  meditation  on  his  "word 
of  glory,"  O  M,  intense  concentration  on  some  one 
thing,  sympathy  vi'ith  happiness,  compassion  for  misery, 
complacency  towards  virtue  and  indifference  to  evil,  the 
breathings  (Pranyama),  concentration  on  any  sensuous 
enjoyment  by  those  who  cannot  steady  their  minds  but 
through  some  kind  of  sensual  pleasure,  which  is  done, 
according  to  the  commentary,  by  "fixing  the  attention 
on  one  of  the  five  senses  of  smell,  taste,  color,  touch 
and  sound.  These  are  respectively  produced  by  concen- 
trating on  the  tip  of  the  nose,  the  tip  of  the  tongue,  the 
forepart  of  the  palate,  the  middle  of  the  tongue,  and  the 
root  of  the  tongue.  The  sensation  produced  in  each 
case  is  not  merely  a  passing  flash  of  pleasurable  feeling; 
but  a  kind  of  complete  absorption  in  the  particular 
enjoyment  meditated  upon."  Then  there  is  concentra- 
tion on  \.\\tjoytis  (light),  and  to  help  concentration  it  is  to 
be  imagined  that  in  the  heart  there  is  a  lotus-like  form 
having  eight  petals  and  with  its  face  turned  downward, 
which  can  be  raised  up  by  exhaling  the  breath,  and 
should  then  be  meditated  on  while  pronouncing  O  M^ 
the  effect  of  which  is  that  a  calm  light  is  seen  "like 
that  of  the  moon  or  sun,  resembling  the  calm  ocean  of 
milk."  Or  the  concentration  maybe  on  the  condition  of 
deep  sleep — or,  finally,  "according  to  one's  predilec- 
tion," that  is  to  say,  on  any  one  thing. 

So  much  for  the  objects  of  concentration.  The  states 
induced  by  it  and  other  results  next  follow:  The  test  of 
proper  concentration  having  been  acquired  is  "  a  mastery 
extending  from  the  finest  atom  to  infinity."  The  two  kinds 


180  HINDU  YOGA. 

of  or  stages  in  concentration,  the  argumentative, or  mixed, 
and  the  non-argumentative,  or  pure,  are  described,  and 
their  result  indicated,  bliss,  intuition,  revelation,  &c. 
These  two  stages  seem  to  correspond  to  the  meditation 
and  contemplation  of  Christian  ascetics,  as  will  be  seen 
later. 

Preliminary  Yoga  is  next  considered,  which  consists  of 
"mortification,  study  and  resignation  to  Iswara,"and  is 
meant  for  those  who  have  not  been  able  to  accomplish 
Samadhi  by  the  methods  just  pointed  out.  Ignorance, 
the  Sense  of  being,  Desire,  Aversion  and  Attachment, 
are  named  as  distractions  to  be  avoided,  the  nature  of 
each  is  explained,  and  the  way  to  overcome  each  by  ap- 
propriate meditation  is  given.  Accessories  to  this  are 
forbearance,  observance,  posture,  regulation  of  breath, 
abstraction,  contemplation,  absorption  and  trance,  and 
the  needed  explanation  is  given  of  what  these  mean  in  re- 
spect to  yoga.  Thus,  forbearance  means  abstinence  from 
killing,  falsehood,  theft,  incontinence  and  greediness;  ob- 
servance means  purity,  contentment,  mortification,  study 
and  resignation  to  Iswara;  '•'•posture  is  that  which  is  easy 
and  steady";  regulation  of  the  breath  means  the  same 
as  in  Hatha  Yoga;  abstraction  means  drawing  away  the 
senses  from  their  objects  in  the  same  way  that  thoughts 
are  drawn  away,  abstracted,  from  theirs,  whence  "fol- 
lows the  greatest  mastery  over  the  senses  " ;  contemplation 
means  "the  fixing  of  the  mind  on  something";  absorp- 
tion means  so  fixing  it  that  the  mind  and  that  something 
become  one;  trance  is  when  this  fixing  of  the  mind  is  car- 
ried so  far  that  the  thinker,  the  thinking  and  the  thing 
thought  of  are  one.  These  last  three  together  consti- 
tute Samyama,"  which  is  the  way  to  several  occult  powers 
and  also  conducts  to  conscious  Samadhi,  the  yoga  proper, 
while  the  five  other  accessories  are  called  external  means, 
being  useful  only  in  obviating  distractions.  But  even  this 
falls  short  of  real  or  unconscious  Samadhi,  the  final  end 


HINDU  YOGA.  181 

of  yoga,  which  is,  says  Patanjati,  "  that  condition  of  the 
mind  which  is  transformation  into  unity." 

Here  follows  a  list  of  the  Siddhis,  or  miraculous  powers, 
with  the  several  modes  of  exercising  them  through  the 
performance  of  Samyama.     They  are: 

1.  Knowing  the  past  and  future. 

2.  Recollecting  previous  incarnations. 

3.  Discerning  the  state  of  a  person's  mind  by  outward 
signs,  like  complexion,  tone  of  voice,  &c. 

4.  Reading  the  thoughts  of  another. 

5.  The  power  to  become  invisible. 

6.  Knowing  the  time  of  one's  death,  by  meditating  on 
his  Karma,  or  by  portents,  such  as  spectres,  dreams, 
&c. 

7.  Attracting  the  good  will  of  others. 

8.  Acquiring  the  powers  of  any  animal,  as  the  strength 
of  an  elephant,  by  meditating  on  it. 

9.  Knowing  "  the  subtle,  the  obscure  and  the  remote," 
by  contemplating  on  the  inner  light,  such  as  yogis  are 
able  to  evoke  by  performing  Rechaka. 

10.  The  knowledge  of  space  by  contemplating  on  the 
sun. 

11.  Knowledge  of  the  starry  regions  by  contemplating 
on  the  moon. 

12.  Knowledge  of  the  motions  of  the  stars  by  con- 
templating on  the  pole-star. 

13.  Knowledge  of  the  internal  arrangement  of  the 
body  by  contemplating  on  the  important  nerve-centre 
near  the  navel.  The  nerve-centres  are  termed  circles, 
padmas,  chakras,  and  contemplation  on  them  is  an  impor- 
tant branch  of  yoga  work,  as  set  forth  by  Patanjali,  as 
well  as  in  the  work  on  Hatha  Yoga  lately  considered. 

14.  Destroying  hunger  and  thirst  by  contemplating  on 
the  pit  of  the  throat. 

15.  Making  the  body  fixed  and  immovable  by  contem- 
plating on  the  Kumia-nadi,  a  certain  nerve  where  the 
vital  air  is  supposed  to  reside. 


182  HINDU  YOGA. 

i6.  The  power  of  seeing  the  beings  called  Siddhas, 
otherwise  Mahatmas,  by  contemplating  on  the  light  in 
the  head,  which  is  made  to  appear  somewhere  near  the 
pineal  gland  or  coronal  artery,  or  over  the  medulla  ob- 
longata, by  concentration  on  the  space  between  the  eye- 
brows. 

17.  The  power  to  accomplish  all  the  before  named 
things  by  pratibha,  which  is:  that  degree  of  intellect 
which  develops  itself  without  any  special  cause,  gen- 
erally termed  "intuition,"  and  can  be  developed  by 
simply  contemplating  on  the  intellect. 

18.  Knowledge  of  the  mind  of  another  or  of  one's 
own,  by  contemplating  on  the  nerve-centre  of  the  heart. 

19.  Knowledge  on  one's  soul  as  distinct  from  his  mind, 
by  contemplating  on  himself. 

20.  As  resulting  from  this  knowledge  intuitional  per- 
ception of  all  the  objects  of  the  senses,  no  matter  how 
far  distant  in  time  or  space. 

(All  the  foregoing  siddhis  are  here  expressly  de- 
nounced both  in  text  and  commentary  as  obstacles  in 
the  way.     Not  so  these  which  follow.) 

21.  Entering  into  and  possessing  another  body, 
whether  living  or  dead,  by  discovering  through  con- 
templation on  the  nerves  the  particular  one  by  which 
mind  can  pass  in  and  out. 

22.  Levitation  of  the  body  and  also  the  ability  to  die 
at  will. 

23.  Effulgence  of  the  body,  halos  about  the  head,  &c. 
Also  Clairaudience,  or  power  to  hear  distant  sounds,  by 
concentration  on  Akasa,  the  either  conveying  sound. 

24.  Ability  to  pass  bodily  through  space,  by  concen- 
tration on  the  relation  between  the  body  and  akasa,  as 
also  by  being  identified  with  light  substances  such  as 
cotton. 

25.  The  condition  of  Mahavideha,  in  which  "knowl- 
edge of  every  description  is  within  easy  reach  of  the 
ascetic,"  and  obtainable  without  effort. 


HINDU  YOGA.  183 

26.  Mastery  over  the  elements  by  concentrating  on 
their  natures  respectively. 

27.  The  attainment  of  anund  and  the  others,  as  also 
perfection  of  the  body  and  the  corresponding  non- 
obstruction  of  its  functions.  "  Anima  and  the  others  " 
are  the  same  "  eight  Siddhis  "  before  mentioned  in  what 
related  to  Hatha  Yoga. 

28.  Beauty,  gracefulness  and  strength,  adamantine 
hardness  of  body. 

29.  Mastery  over  the  organs  of  sense  by  concentration 
on  their  natures. 

30.  As  a  result  of  this  mastery,  fleetness  of  body  equal 
to  that  of  mind,  sensation  independently  of  the  body  or 
its  organs  of  sense.  Ability  to  command  any  thing  and 
create  any  thing  at  will. 

31.  Mastery  over  all  things  and  knowledge  of  all,  by 
contemplating  on  the  "distinctive  relation  of  soul  and 
mind." 

32.  Kaivaiya,  the  highest  end,  the  state  of  oneness,  of 
being  one  and  alone,  obtained  by  renouncing  attachment 
to  even  these  ten  last-named  high  occult  powers. 

It  may  very  well  be  conceived  that  the  intense  thought 
needed  to  produce  such  a  system  as  that  of  Kapila  would 
amount  to  a  mental  concentration  sufficient  to  induce 
the  state  of  mind  that  brings  on  ecstacy  and  lets  in 
supernal  light,  just  as  intense  and  persistent  devotion 
will;  the  same  with  the  hard  thinking  required  for  under- 
standing it  by  his  disciples.  But  the  truth  or  falsity  of 
his  propositions  need  have  had  nothing  to  do  with  either 
his  or  their  yoga  results.  And  certainly  the  Patanjali 
formulation  contains  enough  of  concentrative  work  to 
carry  the  praciicer  aXong  on  the  path,  though  the  student 
should  lag  behind.  The  same  disposition  that  was  shown 
by  Kapila  to  rely  on  intellectual  convictions — a  reliance 
condemned  by  all  the  magicians  of  old,  I  think — is  mani- 
fested at  the  present  day  by  the  many  schools  of  magical 
healers,  each  of  which  claims  to  cure  by  simply  telling 


184  HINDU  YOGA. 

the  patient  the  one  only  truth,  which  it  alone  and  none 
other  possesses.  Neither  truth  nor  untruth  can  be  shown 
to  have  magical  power,  hnt  concentration  on  any  lie  or  any 
truth,  long  kept  up,  will  still  the  mind  and  thereby  let  in 
Nature  to  do  her  work.  And  if  she,  adapting  her  methods 
to  her  material,  at  the  same  time  that  she  develops  them 
a.s  yogis,  humors  the  preconceptions  of  those  she  acts  on, 
so  as  to  reveal  to  each  the  truth  he  likes  best,  now  telling 
the  Hindu  saint  that  he  is  BrdhmSn,  and  now  confirming 
the  good  Catholic  in  his  belief  in  Papal  infallibility,  her 
doing  so  leaves  both  propositions  no  truer  than  they  were 
before, — and  such,  doubtless,  was  the  opinion  of  Kapila 
when  he  set  up  reason  against  revelation;  though  when, 
by  force  of  concentration  on  the  construction  of  his 
system,  he  had  attained  to  Samadhi  in  its  ultimate  stage 
where  spiritual  impressions  flow  in,  and  such  impressions 
confirmed  him  in  his  previous  conclusions  and  revealed 
to  him  that  release  obtained  by  his  methods  was  complete 
and  final,  and  all  others  incomplete  and  temporary,  some- 
thing he  has  not  in  his  aphorisms  attempted  to  prove  in 
any  other  way,  naturally  he  must  have  felt  that  he  had 
both  reason  and  revelation  on  his  side.  But  reason  is  no 
more  infallible  than  its  mystical  offspring  revelation,  and 
the  modern  yogi  will  be  the  wiser  the  more  he  practices 
and  the  less  he  theorizes. 

The  Rajah  Yoga  Philosophy  of  S'rimat  Sankaracharya. 

In  his  treatise  on  direct  cognition  of  the  unity  of  the 
soul  with  Brahman,  this  famous  teacher  begins  by  enjoin- 
ing on  the  practicer  indifference  to  all  life's  pleasures, 
patience  under  its  pains,  a  fixed  theoretical  determination 
that  nothing  is  real  but  the  Self  (Atman) — desire  to  obtain 
release,  and  right  thinking,  which  last  means  acceptance 
of  the  author's  doctrines. 

After  abundantly  and  clearly  setting  forth  all  these  he 
comes  down  to  practical  work  in  verse  loo,  which  is  as 
follows:    "Henceforward  (for  the  instruction  of  those 


HINDU  YOGA.  185 

who  require  to  be  taken  step  by  step  to  the  realization 
of  the  said  truth)  we  begin  to  propound  the  fifteen  stages 
necessary  for  the  acquisition  of  the  knowledge  described 
before.  Knowing  all  these  one  must  use  all  of  them 
towards  acquiring  a  habit  of  constant,  firm  and  active 
meditation."  These  stages  are:  (i)  Yama,  or  restraint 
over  the  senses;  (2)  Niya?na^  or  constant  consciousness 
of  unity  with  Brahman ;  (3)  Tyaga,  recognition  of  Brah- 
man as  being  everywhere;  (4)  Mauna,  "that  inde- 
scribable Brahman  "  which,  though  the  mind  turns  back 
baffled  from  it,  the  learned  must  ever  try  to  possess;  (5) 
Des'a,  of  which  all  said  is,  "That  is  the  real  solitary 
De's  (place)  wherein  the  universe  does  not  exist  in  the 
beginning,  middle  or  end;  and  which  is  to  be  found 
through  the  whole  of  this  (material)  life";  (6)  Kida^  or 
the  support  and  sustenance  of  all  actions  and  the  real 
and  only  fountain  of  joy;  (7)  Asana,  or  position  assumed 
when  meditating  or  practicing  physical  exercises — the 
one  found  most  easy  being  the  best;  (8)  Mulabandha,  of 
which  all  said,  is:  "That  which  is  the  origin  of  all 
being,  and  that  on  whom  depends  the  original  (ignorance) 
obstruction  of  the  manas  {sic)^  is  the  Mulabandha,  to  be 
always  practiced,  and  is  the  only  one  to  be  taken  up  by 
students  of  Rajah  or  mental  Yoga  (to  the  exclusion  of 
the  rather  phalic  bandhas  of  Hatha  Yoga) ;  (9)  Dehas- 
amya,  a  mental  method  for  straightening  the  body,  for 
which  physical  movements  are  sometimes  practiced;  (10) 
Drikathitt,  which  consists  in  viewing  with  the  mind's  eye 
the  whole  universe  as  BrahmSn,  or  knowing  the  seer,  the 
sight  and  the  thing  seen  as  one,  a  mental  substitute  for 
looking  at  the  tip  of  the  nose.  Pranasamyama,  or  "  the 
constant  and  permanent  obstruction  of  all  the  senses 
(internal)  through  the  process  of  viewing  all  objects 
such  as  the  mind  and  its  creations  as  in  and  of  Brahman," 
a  substitute  for  the  breathings  of  Hatha,  Yoga,  in  which 
such  viewing  stands  for  Rechaka  (breathing  out),  the 
conviction  "  I  am  Brahman  "  stands  for  Puraka  (breath- 


186  HINDU  YOGA. 

ing  in),  and  concentration  on  that  conviction  stands  for 
Kumbhaka  (holding  the  breath  in);  (12)  Pratyahara,  or 
the  resolving  all  objects  into  Atman;  (13)  Dharna^  or 
steadying  the  mind  by  making  it  "  recognize  BrahmSn 
wherever  it  travels  or  goes";  (14)  Atmadhyana,  or  con- 
dition of  highest  joy  arising  from  the  conviction,  "  I  am 
Brahman";  (15)  Samadhi  (of  the  unconscious  sort)  or 
*'the  negation  of  all  mental  action,  by  the  mind's  being 
reduced  to  a  state  beyond  all  change,  and  by  its  being 
ever  merged  in  Brahman." 

This  course,  it  is  said,  is  to  be  studied  only  so  long  as 
is  needed  for  the  yogis  to  "acquire  the  power  of,  at  the 
spur  of  the  moment,  collecting  and  concentrating  them- 
selves." The  following  are  the  closing  verses  of  the 
treatise : 

"  143.  This  with  the  parts  set  forth  above  is  Rajah  or 
mental  Yoga  mixed  with  Hatha  or  physical  Yoga,  pre- 
scribed for  those  who  have  already  lost  a  portion  of  their 
taste  for  the  pleasures  of  the  senses." 

**  144.  To  those  whose  minds  are  completely  ripe  this 
Rajah  Yoga  alone  (without  any  Hatha  or  physical  Yoga) 
is  useful ;  this  yoga  again  being  one  easily  accessible  even 
to  those  who  are  devoted  to  their  teachers,  or  to  their 
favorite  gods,  &c." 

In  the  Vedant  Sara^  composed  from  a  comment  written 
by  Sankaracharya  on  the  Vedanta,  it  is  said  "to  point 
out  that  the  knowledge  of  Brahman  was  the  otily  certain 
way  of  obtaining  liberation  instead  of  the  severe  mortifi- 
cations of  former  yogis,  which  mankind  at  present  are  in- 
capable of  performing,  and  to  destroy  among  men  attach- 
ment to  works  of  merit,"  it  is  argued  that  though  the 
old  doctrine  had  been  that  both  works  and  wisdom  were 
required  to  obtain  liberation,  Sankaracharya  had  in  his 
comment  on  the  Bhagavat  Gita  by  many  proofs  shown 
that  works  are  wholly  excluded,  and  that  knowledge 
alone,  realizing  every  thing  as  Brahman,  procured  libera- 
tion. 


HINDU  YOGA.  187 

In  the  same  author's  celebrated  "  Crest  Jewell  of  Wis- 
dom "  we  find  the  same  insistence  on  knowledge  being  the 
only  way  to  liberation  and  Brahman.  It  is  admitted  that 
temporary  liberation  from  re-birth  may  be  obtained  by 
means  of  good  Kartna  and  religious  observances,  &c  , 
but  it  is  asserted  that  permanent  salvation  can  only  come 
by  the  knowledge  of  oneness  with  Deity  through  right 
discrimination — by  knowledge  of  one's  own  soul — which 
knowledge  is  only  gained  "by  perception,  by  investiga- 
tion, or  by  instruction,  but  not  by  bathing  or  giving  of 
alms,  or  by  a  hundred  retentions  of  the  breath,  or  any 
amount  of  Karma."  Again:  "Liberation  cannot  be 
achieved  except  by  the  direct  perception  of  the  identity  of 
the  individual  with  the  universal  self,  neither  by  yoga, 
nor  by  Sankya  (speculative  philosophy),  nor  by  the  prac- 
tice of  religious  ceremonies,  nor  by  7nere  teaching." 
There  seems  to  be  some  inconsistency  here. 

''''The  Philosophy  and  Science  of  Vedanta  a  fid  Rajah  Yoga  " 
by  the  Mahatma  /nana  Guru  Yogi  Sabhapaty  Swami^  is  a 
work  of  our  own  times,  the  author  having  been  born  in 
1840.  Early  in  life  there  fell  upon  him  that  religious 
unrest  which  gives  its  victim  no  respite  until  soon  or  late 
the  continuous  and  intense  concentration  which  it  in- 
duces carries  him  a  certain  ways  into  the  state  of  Sama- 
hadi,  in  which  at  last  he  finds  peace  and  rest,  a  curative 
crisis  such  as  Nature  has  often  to  operate,  whether  for 
the  benefit  of  Hindu  Yogis,  Catholic  saints  or  Methodist 
converts.  In  his  crisis  Sabhapaty  had  a  vision  of  the 
Infinite  Spirit,  by  whom  he  was  directed  to  go  to  certain 
holy  men  and  be  initiated,  much  after  the  manner  of 
Saint  Paul  and  his  vision.  Obedient  as  was  the  saint, 
and  filled  with  as  divine  an  ecstasy,  he  abandoned  his 
family  at  midnight,  and  wrapped  in  only  a  sheet  went  as 
directed.  Within  a  short  time  he  attained  to  such  a  de- 
gree of  Samadhi,  that  he  could  sit  several  days  together 
without  any  food  and  enjoying  full  absorption.  After 
nine  years  of  yoga  work,  during  which  he  lived  in  a  cave 


188  HINDU   YOGA. 

and  fed  on  roots,  he  went  forth  by  command  of  his  teacher 
to  make  known  to  the  world  the  truths  he  had  learned, 
performing  as  he  went  many  notable  miracles.  The  trea- 
tise in  hand  is  the  substance  of  two  of  his  lectures,  and 
is  important  as  showing  the  latest  phase  of  yoga.  It 
begins  with  declaring  the  object  of  it  to  be  "to  show 
the  method  by  which  the  human  soul  is  sure  to  gain  suc- 
cess in  holding  communion  with  the  Universal  Infinite 
Spirit,  and  thereby  become  the  very  Infinite  Spirit  itself." 

Passing  over  the  religious,  scientific  and  philosophical 
part  and  coming  to  the  practical,  we  have  the  following: 
"Then  imagine  that  you  throw,  or  draw  within,  the  real 
and  actual  light  of  your  two  eyes  internally  to  kundali, 
which  will  appear  the  acute  and  keen  divine  sight;  here 
the  Sushumna  vessel  joins  the  lingam  and  ascends  up- 
wards through  the  backbone.  The  sight  must  be  thrown 
in  such  a  way  that  the  keenness  of  those  two  sights,  or 
the  imaginary  knowledge,  jnana  or  consciousness  of  these 
two  eyes,  shall  descend  through  the  right  and  left  holes 
of  the  sushumana  to  the  lowest  point  of  kundali.  By 
the  keenness  of  sight  is  meant  that  indescribable  some- 
thing that  seems  to  proceed  from  the  eyes  when  you 
steadily  gaze  at  a  distant  object  with  half-shut  eyes." 

"Now  imagine  the  mind  to  be  a  straight  pole  whose 
top  is  in  the  middle  of  the  Brahmarandhra  (the  centre  of 
the  skull)  and  whose  bottom  is  in  the  kundali.  Moreover, 
consider  the  mental  vision  or  consciousness  to  be  lodged 
in  the  bottom  of  the  pole." 

"  Now  take  hold  of  the  mental  vision  by  the  keenness 
of  the  two  eyes  and  lift  it  up  gradually  and  slowly,  as 
with  tongs,  to  the  Brahmarandhra.  The  time  taken  in 
this  pulling  up  of  the  mental  consciousness  must  not  be 
less  than  twenty  minutes." 

"  Now  stop  this  imaginary  mental  consciousness  in  the 
Brahmarandhra  for  twenty  minutes  more.  Then  drop  and 
draw  it  up  so  fast  that  within  a  second  it  must  descend 
to  the  kundali  and  re-ascend  to  the  Brahmarandhra,  run- 


HINDU  YOGA.  189 

ning  straight  up  and  down  through  the  middle  vessel 
of  the  large  Sushumna  which  we  have  considered  to  be 
the  mental  pole."  (This  middle  vessel  is  the  lesser 
Sushumna.) 

"  After  practicing  this  for  a  few  minutes,  make  your 
mind  to  stand  upon  the  pole  steady  and  straight  as  if  it 
were  fixed  to  a  firm  rocky  pole.  There  let  it  stand  im- 
movable and  without  descending  again.  Make  it  to  be 
in  dead  and  calm  silence,  void  and  without  motion,  and 
free  from  all  thoughts  and  fickleness." 

"  After  succeeding  in  making  the  pole  of  your  mind 
(or  eternal  divine  conscious  sight)  straight  and  steady 
by  the  foregoing  process,  join  the  conscious  sight  of  the 
two  eyes  with  the  top  of  the  mind  in  the  Brahmarandhra. 
Thus  it  forms  a  triangle  whose  vertex  is  the  mind,  and 
the  two  keennesses  that  proceed  from  the  eyes  to  join 
the  former,  the  two  sides." 

"  Having  got  success  in  this  practice,  imagine  strongly 
that  your  head  is  removed,  and  of  course  with  it  eyes, 
ears,  nose,  mouth  and  everything  pertaining  to  the  head. 
Instead  of  it  consider  that  the  whole  space  is  filled  up 
by  the  universal  {/nanakasha)  consciousness,  which  now 
becomes  the  holy  akash  itself." 

Next  the  yogin  is  directed  to  make  "a  divine  pilgrim- 
age in  the  universe  of  his  body,"  the  lines  of  it  lead- 
ing from  the  top  of  the  head,  through  the  Sushumna, 
down  to  the  Kundali,  and  thence  upward  through  the 
same,  now  termed  kumbak,  to  starting  point.  Along  this 
line  are  located  twelve  certain  spirits,  at  each  of  which 
the  mind  stops  and  addresses  to  it  an  argumentative  as- 
sertion and  sings  with  piety  an  appropriate  mantratn,  the 
intent  of  all  which  is  to  produce  a  realizing  knowledge 
of  the  nature  of  body  and  of  spirit.  For  instance,  the 
mind  on  its  way  down  is  made  to  pause  at  the  centre  of 
the  tongue  where  the  Jivatma  (infinite  spirit)  becomes 
the  finite  spirit  of  consciousness,  appearing  in  three 
forms,  namely,  as  activity,  darkness  and  goodness,  and 


190  HINDU  YOGA. 

there  to  stand  and  to  tell  it,  "I  am  not  you,"  by  singing 
with  devotion  some  verses,  and  then  pass  on. 

Finally,  Pranyama,  the  breathings,  the  same  as  in 
Hatha  Yoga,  are  prescribed,  though  with  a  protest  that 
it  is  not  really  necessary,  in  which  he  but  agrees  with 
other  teachers,  who,  while  disparaging  the  older  and  more 
laborious  practice,  seem  unable  to  do  without  it.  Not 
only  does  this  one  include  Pranyama,  but  the  concentra- 
tion he  directs  upon  this  and  that  part  of  the  body  is 
merely  the  Shakti  process  of  Hatha  with  variations  and 
additions, 

Tatwic   Yoga. 

**  The  Science  of  Breath  "  is  the  title  of  a  little  book 
translated  from  the  Sanscrit  a  few  years  ago  by  the  Pan- 
dit Rama  Prasad,  and  which  attracted  so  much  notice 
that  he  afterwards  embodied  it  in  a  larger  volume  on 
'■'■Nature's  Finer  i^^r^r^i, "  otherwise  made  up  of  explana- 
tory essays  of  his  own.  He  says  in  the  preface  to  the  first 
that  it  is  not  a  very  exact  translation,  and  the  same  is 
true  of  the  second.  Each  contains  matter  not  in  the 
other,  and  there  are  signs  that  something  of  the  original 
work  is  omitted  from  both,  so  that  the  reader  has  to 
piece  out  the  one  from  the  other  in  the  best  way  he  can. 

As  before  explained,  the  ''■Breath''  treated  of  is  not 
of  the  lungs,  but  "Prana,"  the  "Great  Breath,"  which 
pervades  all  nature,  the  first  cause  of  all  things, 
the  life-giving  breath  of  Brahman,  whose  out-going  is 
creation  and  whose  in-drawing  is  destruction.  Of  this 
"great  breath"  the  five  Tatwas  are  the  first  differentia- 
tion. They  may  be  otherwise  named  the  five  states  of 
matter, — the  five  elementary  principles  of  nature, — the 
five  modes  of  motion, — the  five  vibratory  ethers.  On 
all  planes  of  being,  spiritual,  mental,  psychic  and  phys- 
ical, they  correspond  to  the  five  senses  of  man,  whose 
organs  they  create  and  then  act  upon.  In  Akasd,  ether 
par  excellence,  the  first  in  order  and  out  of  which  all  the 


HINDU  YOGA.  191 

Others  are  produced,  which,  as  it  were,  contains  them  all 
and  separates  them  from  each  other  and  penetrates  all 
things,  is  found  the  sense  of  hearing,  in  Vayii  (air)  that 
of  touch,  in  Taijas  (fire)  that  of  seeing,  in  Apas  (water) 
that  of  taste,  and  in  Prithivi  (earth)  that  of  smell.  Each 
of  them  is  produced  by  the  one  preceding  it  in  the  above 
stated  order,  and  each  has  a  vibration  peculiar  to  itself. 
The  tatwic  philosophers  assuming  to  have  obtained 
knowledge  of  the  laws  of  the  tatwic  movement  through 
revelation  as  well  as  reason,  have  elaborated  a  philoso- 
phy covering  all  of  nature's  doing  and  being,  the  study 
of  which  as  set  forth  by  Mr.  Prasad,  whether  its  con- 
clusions be  accepted  or  not,  is  a  delight  to  the  enquir- 
ing mind.  Of  this  philosophy  the  authoritative  gospel 
is  the  little  book  in  question.  It  says:  "The  universe 
came  out  of  tatwa;  it  goes  on  by  the  instrumentality  of 
the  tatwas;  it  disappears  in  the  tatwas;  by  the  tatwas  is 
known  the  nature  of  the  universe.  The  knowers  of  the 
tatwas  have  ascertained  them  to  be  the  highest  root. 
Unmanifested,  formless,  the  one  giver  of  light  is  '•The 
Great  Power  'y  from  that  appeared  the  soniferous  ether 
(akasa)y  from  that  had  birth  the  tangiferous  ether 
(Vayu) ;  from  the  tangiferous  ether,  the  luminiferous 
ether  (taijas),  and  from  this,  gustiferous  ether  (apas) ; 
from  hence  was  the  birth  of  the  odoriferous  ether  (prith- 
ivi). These  are  the  five  ethers  and  they  have  a  fivefold 
extension.  Of  these  the  Universe  came  out;  by  these  it 
goes  on;  into  these  it  disappears;  even  among  these  it 
shows  itself  again.  The  body  is  made  of  the  five  tatwas; 
the  five  tatwas  exist  therein  in  the  subtle  form.  They  are 
known  by  the  learned  who  devote  themselves  to  the 
tatwas." 

"On  this  account  I  shall  speak  of  the  rise  of  breath 
in  the  body;  by  knowing  the  nature  of  inspiration  and 
expiration  comes  into  being  the  knowledge  of  the  three 
times  (past,  present  and  future) ;  omniscience  is  caused 
by  it  if  well  understood.     Whoever  knows  the  analysis  of 


193  HINDU  YOGA. 

the  Nadis  and  the  Prana,  the  analysis  of  the  tatwas  and 
the  analysis  of  the  conjunctive  sushumna  gets  salvation  " 
(release  from  re-births). 

The  other  fruits  of  such  knowledge  are:  the  power  to 
kill  enemies;  to  form  friendships;  to  acquire  wealth, 
comfort  and  reputation;  to  control  the  sex  of  offspring; 
to  get  access  to  a  king;  to  get  a  king  into  one's  power; 
to  propititiate  gods;  the  power  of  locomotion  and  of  the 
exercise  of  bodily  functions;  exemption  from  being  con- 
trolled by  the  heavenly  bodies;  ability  to  lengthen  and 
shorten  the  limbs  at  will;  fulfillment  of  desires;  victory; 
cheating  time;  great  bliss  and  godlike  power;  the  state- 
ment closing  with:  "He  who  has  the  knowledge  of  breath 
in  his  head  has  fortune  at  his  feet. "  The  method  of  using 
the  knowledge  to  obtain  the  fruits  consists  largely  in  com- 
mencing undertakings  at  such  times  as  are  known  to  be 
propitious  by  the  movement  of  the  tatwas  in  the  body. 
Here  the  breath  of  the  lungs  plays  its  part,  but,  for  all 
that  is  told,  only  as  an  indicator  of  the  tatwic  move- 
ments, as  conduits  of  which  the  Ida,  Pingala  and  Sushumna 
have  their  importance.  Divination  is  accomplished  by 
means  of  a  like  knowledge  of  tatwic  movement,  and  rules 
for  practicing  it  fill  a  large  part  of  the  book. 

Each  of  the  tatwas  is  known  to  the  yogi  by  its  color, 
form,  taste  and  mode  of  vibration,  the  power  to  discern 
which  is  in  each  case  to  be  acquired  by  an  appropriate 
practice.  Except  that  concentration  of  the  mind  is  never 
forgotten  and  that  in  the  end  one  of  the  Kumbhakas  is 
recommended,  the  yoga  methods  of  the  little  book  are 
unlike  any  that  have  heretofore  been  cited.  The  most 
important  of  them  is  given  in  the  following,  under  the 
heading  of  "  Meditation  of  the  Tatwas  and  mastery  over 
them  " :  "  But  now  we  are  going  to  explain  the  most  im- 
portant and  final  mode  of  practicing.  This  is  the  secret 
which  the  sages  of  India  only  were  acquainted  with,  and 
up  to  this  time  was  only  a  legacy  to  the  most  promising 
and  perfect  adept  of  yoga.     The  beginner  at  first  will 


HINDU  YOGA.  193 

think  it  a  mere  joke  and  perhaps  madness.  But  a  short 
practice  will  fully  assure  him  of  the  important  results  to 
be  gained  by  the  practice.  He  will  by  degrees  become 
powerful  enough  to  have  at  his  will  all  the  visible  worlds 
before  his  inward  eyes  and  command  the  secrets  of  na- 
ture." 

"  During  the  day,  when  the  sky  is  clear,  let  him  once 
or  twice  for  about  an  hour  or  two  draw  his  mind  from  all 
external  things,  and  sitting  on  an  easy  chair  let  him  fix 
his  eyes  on  any  particular  part  of  the  blue  sky  and  go  on 
looking  at  it  without  allowing  them  to  twinkle." 

"  At  first  he  will  see  the  waves  of  the  water  which  sur- 
rounds the  whole  world." 

''  Some  days  after,  as  the  eye  becomes  practiced,  he  will 
see  different  sorts  of  buildings,  &c. ,  in  the  air,  and  many 
other  wonderful  things,  too.  When  the  neophyte  reaches 
this  stage  of  practice  he  should  be  sure  of  gaining  suc- 
cess." 

■'After  this  he  will  see  different  sorts  of  mixed  colors 
of  the  Tatwas  in  the  sky  which  will,  after  a  constant  and 
resolute  practice,  show  themselves  in  their  respective 
colors.  To  test  the  truth  of  which,  the  neophyte,  during 
the  practice,  should  occasionally  close  his  eyes  and  com- 
pare the  color  floating  in  the  sky  with  that  he  sees  in- 
wardly. When  both  are  the  same  the  operation  is  right. 
Other  wonders  resulting  from  this  will  present  themselves 
to  the  yogi.     This  practice  is  to  be  done  in  the  day  time." 

"  For  the  night  he  must  sit  with  his  shin  bones  to  the 
ground,  letting  his  feet  touch  his  calves;  put  his  hands 
upon  his  knees,  having  the  fingers  pointed  towards  his 
body;  then  fix  his  eyes  on  the  tip  of  his  nose,  and  medi- 
tate upon  his  breath  going  in  and  coming  out."  At 
this  stage  of  perfection  the  yogi  should  commence  as 
follows: 

"  Getting  up  at  two  or  three  a.m.,  let  him  now  fix  his 
mind  on  the  Tatwa  then  in  course  (in  his  body).  If  the 
Tatwa  in  course  is  then  Prithivi  (the  earth),  let  him  think 


194  II I  AW  U  YOGA. 

of  it  as  something  having  four  corners  (the  earth  in  scrip- 
tural times  was  always  square),  having  a  good  yellow 
color,  sweet  smelling,  small  in  body,  and  taking  away  all 
diseases.  Let  him  at  the  same  time  repeat  the  word  Lam. 
It  is  very  easy  to  imagine  such  a  thing," 

After  giving  a  like  sort  of  formula  for  each  of  the 
other  four  Tatwas,  each  closing  with  a  magic  word  of 
one  syllable,  the  book  goes  on  to  say:  "By  diligent 
practice  these  syllables,  uttered  by  the  tongue  of  a  yogi, 
become  inseparable  from  the  Tatwa.  Whenever  he  re- 
peats any  of  these  the  special  Tatwa  appears  with  as 
much  force  as  he  may  will ;  and  thus  it  is  that  a  yogi  can 
cause,  whenever  he  likes,  lightning,  rain,  hurricanes, 
&c."  By  the  mastery  over  the  Tatwas  thus  obtained,  he 
can  also  compel  the  right  one  to  move  in  the  right  time 
and  place,  so  as  to  become  auspicious  to  any  proposed 
undertaking  (as  one  would  regulate  the  wind  by  means 
of  the  weathercock). 

The  work  of  Swatmaram  is  no  doubt  very  old,  but  this 
little  book  must  be  much  older,  if  we  may  judge  by  its 
secular,  non-devotional  character,  the  absence  of  meta- 
physics, its  primitive  rules  for  divination  and  the  large 
space  they  occupy,  its  having  been  of  late  laid  away  and 
nearly  lost,  as  the  preface  to  the  translation  indicates, 
and,  finally,  by  the  marks  it  bears  of  having  been  expur- 
gated in  the  interest  of  modesty. 

Karma  Yoga,  or  the  Yoga  of  Work. 

Although  seclusion  and  leisure  are  so  important  in  the 
practice  of  yoga  as  almost  to  be  conditions  essential  to 
it,  yet  men  have  lived  who,  in  spite  of  the  distractions 
of  active  life  in  the  world,  have  attained  to  some  degree 
of  it  at  least,  as,  for  example,  Plotinus;  and  both  Hindu 
and  Chinese  writers  tell  of  others,  legendary  or  supposi- 
titious, to  whom  the  very  occupations  which  would  ordi- 
narily disturb  mental  concentration  have  served  as  objects 
on  which  to  exercise  it.     The  Swami  Vivekananda,  who 


HINDU   YOGA.  195 

in  one  of  his  eight  lectures  on  Karma  Yoga  goes  so  far 
as  to  say :  "Just  by  work  men  can  get  where  Buddha  got 
by  meditation  and  Christ  by  prayer,"  in  another  tells  of 
a   poor,    hard-working   woman    who,    having    read    the 
thoughts  of  a  young  Sanyasi,  or  monk,  in  a  way  that  so 
astonished  him  that  he  fell  at  her  feet  and  exclaimed: 
"Mother,    how  did   you    know   that?"  answered  him: 
"  Boy,  I  do  not  know  your  yoga  or  your  practices,  but 
all  my  life  I  have  struggled  to  do  my  duty;  that  is  all  the 
yoga  I  practice,  and  by  doing  my  duty  I  have  become 
illumined."     She  then  referred  him  to  a  butcher  as  one 
whose  gifts,  acquired  in  the  midst  of  his  heavy  labors, 
were  much  above  her  own,  and  who  afterwards,  in  an 
interval  of  those   labors,   sat  down  and  gave  the  same 
monk  a  lecture,  which  is  now  a  celebrated  book  in  India. 
When  it  was  finished  the  hearer  could  not  but  ask :  "Why 
are  you  in  a  butcher's  body  and  doing  such  filthy,  ugly 
work  ?"  to  which  the  reply  was:  "  I  neither  know  your 
yoga,   nor  have  I  become  a  Sanyasi;    never  went  out  of 
the  world  nor  into  the  forest,  but  all  this  has  come  to 
me  through  doing  my  duty  in  my  position."     Notwith- 
standing the  prominence  given  to  duty  in  this  narration, 
it  would  be  wrong  to  thence  infer  that  the  fruits  of  yoga 
are  bestowed  as  rewards  for  the  performance  of  duty;  to 
assume  that  they  are  given  as  prizes  to  encourage  the 
doing  of  good  acts  to  others  would  be  to  go  counter  to 
the  whole  tenor  of  yoga  teaching,  which  relates  only  to 
one's  dealings  with  one's  self  as  a  means  of  arriving  at 
his  very  self.     What  brought  illumination  to  the  woman 
and  man  just  referred  to  must  be  presumed  to  have  been 
doing  the  work  which  duty  required  of  them  with  con- 
centrated minds.     Concentration  itself  being  the  opera- 
tive means  and  the  object  concentrated  on  being  of  small 
moment,  it  might  be  possible  for  a  strong  mind  to  direct 
itself  so  intently  on  even  manual  labor  as  to  obtain  the 
Siddhis  as  immediate,  and  deliverance  as  ultimate  results. 
The  Chinese  sage,  Chuang-Tzu,  tells  a  story  of  which 


196  HINDU  YOGA. 

another  cutter-up  of  meat  is  the  hero,  thus:  "Prince 
Hui's  cook  was  cutting  up  a  bullock.  Every  blow  of  his 
hand,  every  heave  of  his  shoulders,  every  tread  of  his 
foot,  every  thrust  of  his  knee,  every  whshh  of  rent  flesh, 
every  chhk  of  the  chopper,  was  in  perfect  harmony — 
rythmical  like  the  dance  of  the  mulberry  grove,  simul- 
taneous like  the  chords  of  ChingShou."  "Well  done," 
cried  the  Prince;  "  yours  is  skill  indeed."  "Sire,"  re- 
plied the  cook,  "I  have  always  devoted  myself  to  Tao 
(which  here  means  the  same  as  yoga).  //  is  better  tha?i 
skill.  When  I  first  began  to  cut  up  bullocks  I  saw  before 
me  simply  whole  bullocks.  After  three  years'  practice  I 
saw  no  more  whole  animals.  And  now  I  work  with  my 
mind  and  not  with  my  eye.  When  my  senses  bid  me 
stop,  but  my  mind  urges  me  on,  I  fall  back  upon  eternal 
principles.  I  follow  such  openings  or  cavities  as  there 
may  be,  according  to  the  natural  constitution  of  the 
animal.  A  good  cook  changes  his  chopper  once  a  year, 
because  he  cuts.  An  ordinary  cook  once  a  month — 
because  he  hacks.  But  I  have  had  this  chopper  nineteen 
years,  and  although  I  have  cut  up  many  thousand  bul- 
locks, its  edge  is  as  if  fresh  from  the  whetstone." 

Another  narration  of  the  same  sage  not  only  illus- 
trates the  point  that  common  labor  may  serve  the  pur- 
pose of  mental  concentration,  and  thereby  as  above 
develop  something  "better  than  skill,"  but  also  ex- 
plains, so  far  as  it  is  explicable,  the  difference  between 
knowledge  such  as  can  be  taught  in  words,  and  one 
branch  at  least  of  such  as  comes  by  yoga  practice,  the  one 
being  communicable  by  a  few  hours  of  instruction  and 
the  other  obtainable  only  by  years  of  practice,  in  which 
hand  and  head  co-operate  to  give  a  mastery  which  is  be- 
yond knowledge.  An  old  wheelwright,  who  undertakes 
to  explain  to  his  prince  the  difference  in  question,  is  made 
to  say  : 

"Let  me  take  an  illustration  from  my  own  trade.  In 
making  a  wheel,  if  you  work  too  slowly,  you  can't  make 


HINDU  YOGA.  197 

it  firm;  if  you  work  too  fast  the  spokes  won't  fit  in.  You 
must  neither  go  too  slowly  nor  too  fast.  There  itiust  be 
co-ordination  of  mind  and  hand.  Words  cannot  explain 
what  it  is,  but  there  is  some  mysterious  art  therein.  I 
cannot  teach  it  to  my  son  ;  nor  can  he  learn  it  from 
me.  Consequently,  though  seventy  years  old,  I  am  still 
making  wheels  in  my  old  age."  May  not  that  something 
slowly  acquired  by  co-ordination  of  mind  and  hand,  in 
which  the  ability  of  the  artisan  and  artist  lies,  be  indeed 
a  kind  of  yoga  ?  May  not  artistic  inspiration  be  as  much 
the  product  of  artistic  labor  as  the  yogis'  enlightenment 
is  of  the  yoga  practice  ? 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  the  practical  Chinese  would 
put  yoga  to  mundane  uses,  and  accordingly  the  writings 
of  Chuang-Tzu  are  illustrated  with  many  more  instances 
of  like  bearing  with  the  above;  of  these  one  more  will  be 
quoted:  "The  man  who  forged  swords  for  the  Minister 
of  War  was  eighty  years  of  age,  yet  he  never  made  the 
slightest  slip  in  his  work." 

The  Minister  of  War  said  to  him,  "Is  it  your  skill. 
Sir,  or  have  you  any  method?" 

"  It  is  concentration, "  replied  the  man,  ' '  When  twenty 
years  old  I  took  to  forging  swords.  If  a  thing  was  not  a 
sword,  I  did  not  notice  it.  I  availed  myself  of  whatever 
energy  I  did  not  use  in  other  directions  in  order  to  secure 
greater  efficiency  in  the  direction  required.  Still  more 
of  that  which  is  never  without  use — Tao  (yoga).  So  that 
there  was  nothing  which  did  not  lend  its  aid." 

The  Japanese  armorers,  too,  it  is  said,  when  they  un- 
dertake to  forge  a  blade  of  superior  quality,  call  in  the  aid 
of  yoga  concentration,  but  in  a  more  ceremonious  man- 
ner, hammering  away  in  a  state  of  true  spiritual  exalta- 
tion. And  the  methods  of  these  craftsmen  are  none  the 
less  true  yoga  practice  for  the  object  concentrated  on 
being  the  work  presently  in  hand  and  the  fruit  of  it  merely 
earthly  profit  and  advantage.  Of  course  it  is  not  here  in- 
tended to  include  in  the  same  category  with  this  handi- 


198  HINDU  YOGA. 

craft  inspiration  the  higher  kinds  of  knowledge  that  come 
in  Samadhi. 

We  have  seen  in  what  has  been  thus  far  disclosed  of 
Hindu  yoga  practice  that  the  concentration  of  the  mind 
required  by  it  may  be  upon  any  one  thing  or  thought, 
point,  place,  word,  act,  or  nothing  at  all— absolute  void, 
the  last  the  best  of  all.  Also  that  yoga  may  be  efficiently 
practiced  in  the  household  or  the  forest,  in  soltude,  or 
crowds,  though,  doubtless,  seclusion  and  solitude,  and 
exemption  from  physical  labor,  furnish  by  far  the  better 
conditions.  But  the  range  of  concentration  may  be  still 
further  extended;  it  may  include  bodily  sensations  and 
mental  emotions.  Intense  pain  or  intense  pleasure  of 
mind  or  body  have  power  to  command  the  attention. 
One  office  of  pain  in  the  scheme  of  Nature  may  be  to  con- 
centrate the  mental  powers  on  the  injury  or  disorder,  of 
which  it  is  the  effect  and  the  outcry,  with  curative  force, 
and  the  common  fainting  fit  may  be  but  a  form  of  trance, 
Samadhi,  brought  on  by  intensity  of  the  agony,  alarm  or 
grief.  The  "witches'  sleep,"  which  so  often  came  to  the 
sufferers  on  the  rack  or  at  the  stake,  and  which  is  said 
by  some  to  have  saved  Servetus  at  the  last  from  feeling 
the  full  measure  of  Calvin's  hate,  may  have  been  brought 
on  by  concentration  on  this  or  that  subject  or  thing,  but 
more  likely  was  induced  by  a  powerful  focussing  of  the 
mental  faculties  on  the  bodily  agony  then  and  there  being 
undergone  or  impending,  for  if  the  witches  were  really 
witches  they  were  "sensitive"  and  easily  put  into  a 
trance,  just  as  Boehme  was,  who  went  into  one  at  the 
sight  of  a  point  of  light  on  a  newly  scoured  pewter  plat- 
ter, or  John  of  the  Cross,  in  whose  presence,  in  his  latter 
days,  it  would  not  do  to  sing  a  verse  lest  he  should  im- 
mediately lose  consciousness  and  rise  and  float  in  the  air. 
Faintings  connected  with  joyful  sensations  of  any  kind 
can  hardly  be  attributed  to  concentration  on  anything 
else  than  the  joy  presently  felt.     There  is  a  yoga  practice 


HINDU  YOGA.  199 

in  India  based  on  sexual  love,  and  it  has  two  branches, 
termed  of  the  right  and  left  hand. 

Some  Concluding  Remarks  on  Hindu  Yoga. 

Of  the  275  sections  composing  that  part  of  Swatma- 
ram's  manual  that  treats  of  Hatha  Yoga,  there  are  only 
three  that  mention  release  or  deliverance,  and  these 
being  out  of  joint  with  all  the  272  others  must  be  consid- 
ered as  having  got  into  the  compilation — which  is  all  the 
book  claims  to  be — without  right.  The  little  work  on 
"  The  Science  of  Breath  "  is  entirely  bare  of  any  promise 
of,  or  allusion  to,  any  other  than  worldly  benefits  to  be 
enjoyed  in  this  life  as  the  reward  of  the  neophyte's  prac- 
tice, while  that  reward  is  distinctly  stated  to  be  the  quali- 
fying him  as  a  magician  with  the  powers  usually  accorded 
to  such,  besides  others  usually  attributed  only  to  gods, 
together  with  the  enjoyment  of  "immeasurable  bliss." 
Both  works  relate  evidently  to  the  primitive,  unsophisti- 
cated yoga  of  the  times  when  the  Rig  Vedas,  quite  as 
exclusively  mundane  in  the  benefits  they  promise,  were 
composed  by  the  earliest  yogis,  and  when  the  Brahmans 
were  not  as  yet  a  caste,  but  merely  a  body  of  household 
priests  and  practical  magicians  working  for  hire.  But 
when  the  great  and  wonderful  secret  doctrine,  born  of 
the  brains  of  the  Kshatrya  class,  of  other  and  superior 
blood  to  these,  and  elaborated  to  perfection  while  years 
by  centuries  rolled  on,  was  at  length  made  known  and  a 
new  philosophy  given  to  the  world,  the  old  magic  was 
put  to  a  new  use,  and  as  indicating  its  new  end  and  aim, 
which  was  that  of  escaping  from  re-birth  through  junc- 
tion with  the  first  principle  of  all  things,  took  the  name 
of  Yoga;  and  because  it  was  the  gift  of  the  warrior  class, 
from  which  the  rulers  of  the  people  were  chosen,  became 
distinctively  known  as  Rajah,  or  Royal  Yoga,  while  the 
other  kept  that  which  expresses  its  method  and  not  its 
object,  namely,  Ha  Tha,  or  Breath  Yoga.    Yet  there  are 


200  HINDU  YOGA. 

some  who  think  Rajah  Yoga  means  only  royal  road,  i.  e., 
easy  road. 

The  way  in  which  the  long-kept  secret  got  out  is  nar- 
rated in  the  Upanishads,  thus:  A  priest  said  to  his  son, 
"  Shvetaketu,  go  dwell  as  a  Brahman  student,  for  none 
of  our  family  was  ever  unlearned,  a  mere  hanger-on  of 
Brahmanhood."  Then  Shvetaketu,  going  when  he  was 
twelve  years  old,  returned  when  he  was  twenty-four,  after 
studying  all  the  Vedas,  conceited,  vain  of  his  learning, 
and  proud. 

His  father  then  sent  him  to  the  Court  of  King  Prava- 
hanna,  who,  addressing  him,  said: 

"Youth,  has  thy  father  instructed  thee?  " 

"Yes,  sire,"  replied  the  young  Brahman.  Then  the 
King  asked  him:  "  Knowest  thou  whither  go  those  who 
die  out  of  this  world?  " 

"  No,"  he  replied. 

"  Knowest  thou  how  they  return  again? " 

"  No,"  he  replied. 

"Knowest  thou  the  turning  apart  of  the  two  ways?" 
(the  way  of  the  gods  and  the  way  of  the  fathers). 

"  No,"  he  replied. 

"  Knowest  thou  why  that  world  is  not  overfilled?  " 

"  No,"  he  replied. 

"Knowest  thou  how,  at  the  fifth  offering,  the  waters 
take  human  voice? " 

"  No,"  he  replied. 

"Then  how  saidst  thou  that  thou  hast  received  the 
teaching?  For  how  is  he  taught  who  knows  not  these 
things?  " 

The  youth  thereupon  goes  and  reports  his  discomfiture 
to  his  father,  but  refuses  to  go  again  to  the  King  to  be 
taught,  so  the  old  man  goes  alone  and  begs  for  instruc- 
tion. The  King,  after  telling  him:  "  Never  before  thee 
did  this  teaching  reach  the  Brahmans,  but  among  all 
peoples  it  was  the  hereditary  instruction  of  the  Kshatryas 
alone,"  granted  his  request. 


HINDU  YOGA.  201 

Be  this  story  itself  true  or  not,  it  well  enough  conveys 
the  truth  that  subsequently  to  the  giving  out  of  the 
Vedic  Revelations  there  had  grown  up  in  secret  quite 
another  doctrine  of  life,  death  and  immortality  from 
what  they  convey,  that  was,  after  a  very  long  period, 
in  some  way  given  to  the  world,  or  to  the  priesthood 
rather,  who  had  lent  no  hand  in  its  making  up,  and  who, 
though  ostensibly  accepting,  paid  little  regard  to  it.  The 
unanswered  questions  of  the  King  imply  that  it  contained : 
(i),  A  modified  world  of  spirits,  consisting  of  a  land  of 
the  fathers  and  a  land  of  the  gods,  with  a  special  way  to 
each,  but  only  a  temporary  sojourn  in  either;  (2),  Re- 
birth; (3),  Release  from  it,  and  final  absorption  in 
Brahman. 

As  to  the  peculiar  Hindu  belief  in  absorption,  it  may 
be  conceived  of  as  arising  from  the  acquisition  of  magical 
powers,  always  esteemed  to  be  god-like,  in  connection 
with  the  subjective  experiences  that  come  with  them, 
among  which  are  certain  blissful  sensations,  that  might 
well  suggest  to  the  practicer's  mind  that  he  was  losing 
his  every-day  self  in  something.  We  have  seen  that 
yoga  literature  claims  for  practicers  who  attain  to  yoga 
power  to  work  as  good  miracles  as  any  god.  This  being 
so,  it  would  be  natural  for  the  attainer,  as  one  by  one 
miraculous  powers  came  to  him,  to  think  himself  on  the 
way  to  become  God,  and  when  Samadhi,  with  its  bliss, 
illumination  and  sinking  of  the  outer  conscious  in  the 
inner  one  was  finally  reached,  that  he  should  exclaim, 
"I  am  Brahman  !"  Thus  the  idea  of  absorption  may 
very  well  have  arisen  from  the  wonderful  experiences  of 
yoga  practice.  But  it  is  more  than  probable  that  before 
this  idea  was  reached  that  of  absorption  in  inferior 
deities  had  its  place,  for  those  came  first  in  order  of 
time,  but  naturally,  also,  this  lower  conception  would 
give  place  to  the  higher  one  now  become  the  core  of  the 
Vedanta  philosophy  and  leave  no  trace  in  Hindu  litera- 
ture.    So  much  for  the  belief  in  absorption.     But  how 


203  HINDU  YOGA. 

came  we  by  the  doctrine  of  re-births  ?  Mr.  Charles  John- 
ston, in  the  "Metaphysical  Magazine"  for  May,  1896, 
refers  it  to  an  intuition.  He  says:  "  The  early  Kshatrya 
teaching  was  an  intuition  of  the  potency  of  the  moral 
and  spiritual  forces  as  the  determining  powers  in  life  and 
a  belief  in  re-birth  as  the  natural  outcome  of  the  reality 
and  continuance  of  those  energies."  Thus  a  scholar, 
apparently  well  read  in  Hindu  learning,  has  found  there 
no  more  solid  reason  for  this  very  solidly  fixed  belief 
than  an  inference  drawn  from  an  intuition. 

When  King  Pravahanna  gave  out  the  long-hidden 
Rajah  Philosophy,  there  came  with  it  no  special  Rajah 
Yoga,  but  in  the  course  of  time  difference  in  purpose 
brought  difference  in  method,  and  the  old  system  of 
training  for  the  development  of  magicians  through  in- 
tent, persistent,  not  thinking,  aided  by  certain  bodily 
acts  efficient  to  arrest  thought,  gradually  grew  into  the 
seemingly  more  intellectual  and  spiritual  one  now  most 
in  vogue,  of  scorning  physical  means  and  magical  ends 
and  agonizing  in  the  hardest  kind  of  metaphysical  think- 
ing for  the  purpose  of  getting  to  God. 

Sankaracharya  says :  "  One  who  desires  knowledge  for 
final  absolution  must  set  himself  seriously  to  think." 

"Knowledge  is  not  produced  by  any  means  other  than 
right  thinking;  just  as  the  objects  in  the  universe  are 
never  perceived  but  by  the  help  of  light." 

"Who  am  I?  How  is  this  evolved?  Who  is  its 
creator  ?  What  is  the  material  of  which  it  is  made  ? 
This  is  the  form  of  rational  thought." 

And  then  the  young  philosopher  goes  on  rather  dog- 
matically to  tell  the  disciple  what  to  think. 

If  more  were  known  of  the  yogas  other  than  Hindu 
more  resemblance  might  be  found  between  them  and  it 
than  appears  when  the  above  condensation  which  the  rich- 
ness of  the  literature  relating  to  it  has  rendered  possible 
is  compared  with  the  more  meagre  accounts  concerning 
the  others  with  which  we  shall  have  to  be  content.     But 


HINDU  YOGA.  203 

as  it  is  certain  important  features  of  the  one  will  be  found 
to  be  wanting  in  all  others.  The  positions,  breathings, 
movements  and  listenings,  in  short,  all  of  importance  in 
Swatmaram's  book,  save  simple  mental  concentration,  is 
peculiar  to  the  Hindu  practice.  In  other  words,  all  that 
distinguishes  Hatha  from  other  Hindu  yogas  also  dis- 
tinguishes Hindu  Yoga  as  a  whole  from  all  others.  Again, 
though  in  some  of  those  others  union  with  God  in  some 
mode  is  held  up  as  the  object  to  be  attained  by  the  prac- 
tice, such  union  never  amounts  to  absorption,  nor  effects 
release  from  re-births.  Whatever  other  reward  may  at- 
tend any  other  than  the  Hindu  practicer's  labors,  it  is  not 
the  getting  out  of  life — the  shaking  off  of  this  trouble- 
some universe.  It  is  true  that  Hindu  Yoga  calls  itself  a 
religion,  and  that  it  utilizes  religious  belief  and  emotion 
as  means  of  concentration,  but  otherwise  it  is  peculiar 
among  religions  in  denying  that  either  of  them  is  essen- 
tial to  yoga  practice,  or  even  an  aid  to  it,  save  for  people 
whose  minds  are  able  to  hold  such  beliefs  and  are  of 
temperaments  too  emotional  to  do  without  them.  The 
Christian  yogi  must  remain  a  devotee  till  he  dies;  the 
Hindu,  if  he  ever  were  one,  is  rid  of  all  the  burthens  of 
religion  as  soon  as  he  has  "attained  " ;  an  atheist  will  do 
just  as  well  as  any  other  to  make  a  yogi  of.  If  of  philo- 
sophical tastes  he  may  concentrate  on  logical  proposi- 
tions, and  this  is  Gnana  Yoga.  If  of  mystical  tendencies 
he  may  study  the  stirring  within  him  of  the  faculties  of 
his  own  soul  aroused  to  movement  by  the  stilling  of  his 
mind,  and  this  is  Rajah  Yoga.  Or  if  he  be  a  man  of  work, 
he  may  put  his  attention  fixedly  on  what  he  has  to  do, 
and  this  is  Karma  Yoga.  But  whatever  the  method  be 
called,  it  is  well  worth  notice  that  the  expositors  of  it  are 
careful  to  stir  in  with  the  concentration  more  or  less  of 
Pranyama,  breathing.  Thus  mental  concentration  and 
physical  breathing  are  inseparable  companions  in  every 
form  of  Hindu  Yoga.  Concentration  is  in  all  others,  but 
breathing  is  absent.     Now,  there  are  facts  which  seem  to 


204  HINDU  YOGA. 

show  that  this  difference  is  of  the  greatest  importance; 
among  which  are  these:  that  the  breathing  is  proved  to 
have  power  to  still  the  mind,  as,  indeed,  every  one  may 
test  for  himself,  and  that  the  late  American  experiments 
prove  that  concentration  undertaken  solely  for  the  pur- 
pose of  so  stilling  the  mind  can  also  set  up  the  breathings 
in  an  involuntary  manner,  as  well  as  the  Madras  and 
other  bodily  movements,  internal  and  external,  which  the 
manuals  of  Hatha  Yoga  direct  to  be  voluntarily  done. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

CHINESE    YOGA. 

When,  three  centuries  before  Christ,  Buddhism  carried 
with  it  into  China  Hindu  Yoga,  it  found  there  something 
much  older  than  itself  called  Tao^  whose  scriptures,  em- 
bodied in  the  ''Tao-Te-King,'"  or  "  The  Book  of  the  Way 
and  of  Virtue,"  attributed  to  the  sage  Lao-Tsee,  who 
lived  three  centuries  earlier  still,  though  supposed  by 
scholars  to  be  spurious  in  part  and  in  large  part  incom- 
plete, is  nevertheless  the  authoritative  exposition  of  the 
old  Taoism  which  Confucius  came  to  disturb  and  the 
recognized  authority  of  the  new  and  corrupted  cult  of 
that  name. 

Old  Taoism  never  had  a  personal  god;  the  persons  of 
its  mythology  were  not  gods,  and  the  gods  of  its  philos- 
ophy were  not  persons.  The  "supreme  magistrate" 
whom  the  book  in  question  in  one  place  mentions,  was 
merely  a  spirit  who,  acting  upon  information  brought  to 
him  by  other  spirits  who  went  up  and  down  in  the  earth 
doing  duty  as  detectives,  rewarded  and  punished  accord- 
ing to  desert  both  the  living  and  the  dead.  In  another 
place  a  "supreme  master  of  heaven"  is  alluded  to  as 
"coming  subsequent  to  Tao,"  and  in  other  literature  an 
"emperor  of  heaven"  and  again  a  "king  of  heaven" 
are  named;  but  these  bore  rule  in  heaven  only  and  their 
jurisdiction  did  not  interfere  with  that  of  the  one  heaven- 
ordained  ruler  of  all  the  earth,  namely,  the  Emperor  of 
China.  Of  philosophical  gods,  there  were  three,  but 
they  were  like  the  Brahman  of  the  Hindu  philosophy, 
primordial  principles  only,  high  above  worship,  obedi- 
ence and  love,  and  nothing   like  the  trinity,  made  up  of 


206  CHINESE    YOGA. 

Brahman  endowed  with  personality  and  sex  and  his 
associates  personal  Vichnu  and  Siva,  nor  that  of  the 
Egyptians,  which  was  simply  a  holy  family  made  up  of 
Osiris,  the  father,  Isis,  the  mother,  and  Horus,  their  son ; 
nor  yet  that  of  the  Christians,  which  was  modeled  on  this 
last,  except  that  in  deference  to  the  contempt  felt  gen- 
erally throughout  early  Christendom  for  her  sex,  the 
Virgin  Mary  was  left  out,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  till  then 
unknown  as  a  god,  put  in  her  place.  Which  was  a  sad 
mistake,  for  the  amended  god-head  was  so  inartificially 
put  together  that  long  and  horrible  wars  resulting  from 
efforts  to  understand  it  have  left  it  still  incomprehensi- 
ble to  the  mortal  mind,  while,  so  far  as  history  relates,  no 
bloodshed  at  all  had  to  be  invoked  in  explanation  of  its 
prototype,  the  simple  family  circle  of  Egypt. 

The  construction  of  the  Christian  trinity,  according  to 
Saint  Augustine,  is  as  follows:  "We  say,  we  do,  that  the 
father  is  the  father  of  the  son,  and  that  the  son  is  the 
son  of  the  father,  and  that  the  holy  spirit  is  the  spirit  of 
the  father  and  the  son,  without  being  either  the  father 
or  the  son."  Thus  the  Holy  Ghost,  who  as  everybody 
knows  begat  the  son,  is  declared  to  have  done  so  before 
he  himself  had  existence,  since  as  the  spirit  of  his  child 
he  could  not  have  had  being  in  advance  of  that  child. 

Much  prettier  word-work  are  the  expositions  of  the 
only  two  impersonal  trinities  of  which  there  is  record, 
namely  that  of  Old  Taoism,  made  by  Lao-Tsee  and  that 
of  the  Neoplatonists,  made  by  Plotinus,  the  parallelism 
of  which  is  the  more  remarkable  when  it  is  considered 
that  however  much  the  Greeks  may  have  learned  from 
India,  the  literature  of  China  must  have  been  quite  be- 
yond their  reach.  Here  is  a  statement  of  each,  mem- 
ber by  member,  that  of  Plotinus  being  from  the  hand  of 
M.  Bouillet,  his  translator  and  editor: 

*'  The  foundation  of  the  whole  system  of  Plotinus  is 
the  theory  of  the  three  hypostatic  principles,  that  is  to 
say,  of  the  three  Divine  principles  which  from  all  eter- 


CHINESE    YOGA.  207 

nity  have  emanated  the  one  from  the  other."  The  first 
is  called  "  the  First,'"  "  the  Good^"  because  all  depends  on 
it,  all  aspires  to  it,  all  hold  of  it  existence,  life  and 
thought.  It  is  also  called  ^'' the  One,''  ^^  the  Simple,"  ^^  the 
Absolute,"  which  has  manifested  its  power  in  producing 
all  intelligible  beings.  (But  what  he  thus  indicates 
Plotinus  expressly  says  cannot  be  named.) 

Now  turning  to  the  Tao-Te-King  we  read:  ''Tao  pro- 
duced One,"  "  One  produced  Two,"  "  Two  produced 
Three"  "  7'^r^^  have  produced  all  beings."  Also:  "The 
being  without  a  name  is  the  origin  of  heaven  and  earth; 
with  a  name  it  is  the  mother  of  all  things."  "  Tao  is 
vague,  confused."  *'Tao  is  void  but  exhaustless,  pro- 
found, the  patriarch  of  all  beings;  pure,  subsisting  eter- 
nally." *'  Tao  is  beyond  sense,  eternal,  nameless,  form- 
less, rooted  in  non-being,  obscure,  without  color  or 
sound,  cannot  be  touched,  is  incorporeal,  form  without 
form,  image  without  image." 

The  second  member  of  the  Neoplatonic  trinity  is  thus 
described:  "The  second  principle  \s  Intelligence,  wh'xch. 
embraces  in  its  universality  all  the  individual  intelli- 
gences. In  thinking  itself,  Intelligence  possesses  all 
things;  it  is  all  things,  because  in  it  the  thinking  subject, 
the  object  thought  of  and  the  thought  itself  are  iden- 
tical." "Its  ideas  are  th&  pure  forms,  types  of  all  that 
exists  here  below  in  the  world  of  sense,  the  essences,  the 
real  beings,  the  intelligibles ;  they  compose  the  ifitelligible 
world." 

In  the  Tao-Te-King  we  read:  "The  visible  forms  of 
the  great  Virtue  (7>)  emanate  from  Tao  solely."  "Within 
it  are  images."  "Within  it  are  beings."  "Within  it  is 
a  spiritual  essence,  and  that  essence  is  profoundly  true." 

The  third  member  of  the  Neoplatonic  trinity  is  thus 
described:  "The  third  Y>^inc\p\e  \s  the  universal  soul,  or 
the  soul  of  the  world,  from  which  proceed  all  the  indi- 
vidual souls."  "  There  are  two  parts  to  it,  the  principal 
power  of  the  soul,  or  \he  celestial  soul,  which  contemplates 


208  CHINESE   YOGA. 

Intelligence  and  thence  receives  its  forms,  and  the  in- 
ferior power  of  the  soul,  called  natural  and  generative  power, 
total  Reason  of  the  Universe,  because  it  transmits  to  mat- 
ter the  seminal  reasons  which  fashion  and  form  the  ani- 
mals." 

The  Tao-Te-King  says:  "  It,  Tao,  can  be  regarded  as 
the  mother  of  the  Universe."  "  It  is  spread  throughout 
the  Universe  "  (note  8),  "  There  is  not  a  creature  that 
does  not  possess  it. "  "  Tao  flows  everywhere."  "All 
beings  rely  on  it  to  give  them  birth,  and  it  repels  none." 
"  It  loves  and  sustains  all  beings."  "  It  is  able  to  give 
aid  to  them  and  conduct  them  to  perfection."  "Tao 
produces  beings.  Virtue  (7>)  sustains  them.  They  mani- 
fest them  under  a  material  form,  and  perfect  them  by  a 
forcible  secret  impulsion."  "  Tao  produces  beings,  sus- 
tains and  causes  them  to  grow,  perfects  them,  feeds 
them,  protects  them."  "  That  which  is  void,  non-beifig, 
immaterial,  is  called  Tao,  or  the  way;  that  which  trans- 
forms and  sustains  all  creatures  is  Te,  or  Virtue."  "  An 
immaterial  breath  forms  Harmony."  Readers  who  will 
carefully  compare  these  Chinese  and  Greek  triads  will 
find  their  parallelism  so  close  that  they  must  wonder 
that  lines  so  far  apart  in  time  and  space,  the  one  pro- 
jected from  the  Chinese  and  the  other  from  the  Greek 
intellect,  could  run  so  nearly,  if  not  exactly,  equi-distant 
at  every  point  as  these  do. 

Like  Plotinus,  who  declares  the  first  principle  of  his 
trinity  to  be  too  great  for  a  name,  and  uses  the  terms 
"the  One,"  "the  First"  "the  Good,"  "the  Simple," 
"  the  Absolute,"  to  point  at  what  he  may  not  name.  Lao- 
Tse  uses  the  vague  word  Tao  to  indicate  his  first  and  in- 
effable principle,  "  the  being  without  a  name."  To  his 
life-giving,  life-sustaining  principle,  corresponding  to  the 
universal  soul  of  Plotinus,  and  which  must  be  ranked  as 
third  in  order,  he  applies  the  name  Virtue  (Te),  but  has 
none  for  that  intermediate  one  corresponding  to  the 
Neoplatonist's  "  Intelligence  ";  for  it  "  Tao  "  has  again 


CHINESE    YOGA.  209 

to  serve,  as  it  does  for  numberless  other  things  and  no- 
things— in  short,  for  whatever  is  beyond  reach  of  normal 
consciousness,  and  all  within  its  reach  that  relates  to 
what  is  so  beyond  it. 

Not  only  has  this  old  Taoism  a  superior  godhead,  if 
so  it  may  be  called,  but  it  has  a  moral  ideal  that  tran- 
scends all  others,  and  which  even  Neoplatonism  cannot 
match,  an  ideal  that  is  above  justice,  above  humanity, 
above  virtue.  The  eighteenth  chapter  of  the  Tao-Te- 
King  reads : 

"When  the  Great  Way  had  decayed,  humanity  and 
justice  made  their  appearance." 

"When  the  family  ceased  to  line  in  good  harmony, 
acts  of  filial  piety  and  paternal  affection  became  known." 

"When  states  fell  into  disorder,  faithful  and  devoted 
subjects  came  into  notice." 

The  thirty-eighth  chapter  reads: 

"  Men  of  superior  virtue  ignore  their  virtue;  and  that 
is  why  they  have  virtue." 

"  Men  of  inferior  virtue  never  forget  their  virtue  ;  that 
is  why  they  have  no  virtue." 

"  Men  of  superior  virtue  practice  it  without  dreaming 
of  it." 

"  Men  of  inferior  virtue  practice  it  with  intention." 

"  Men  of  superior  humanity  practice  it  without  dream- 
ing of  it." 

"  Men  of  superior  equity  practice  it  with  intention." 

"  Men  of  superior  urbanity  practice  it  and  nobody  re- 
sponds to  it;  then  they  use  violence  to  obtain  return 
payment  of  it." 

"  This  is  why  one  can  have  virtue  after  having  lost 
Tao;  humanity  after  having  lost  virtue;  equity  after 
having  lost  humanity ;  urbanity  after  having  lost  equity. " 

"  Urbanity  is  but  the  husk  of  rectitude  and  of  sincerity ; 
it  is  the  source  of  disorder." 

Jesus  of  Nazareth  when  he  taught  that  men  should  re- 
turn good  for  evil  went  no  further  in  his  altruism  than 


210  CHINESE   YOGA. 

Lao-Tsee  had  already  gone  when  he  declared  that  they 
should  "avenge  injuries  with  benefits";  which  latter 
saying  when  reported  to  Confucius  he  criticised  by  the 
question:  "With  what  then  would  you  return  good  ? " 
We  of  these  days  so  remote  from  the  supposed  Golden 
Age  to  which  the  old  Taoists  looked  back  as  to  a  para- 
dise lost  but  yet  possible  to  be  regained,  will  be  disposed 
to  accept  the  criticism,  but  in  the  times  when  it  was 
uttered  it  may  have  seemed  harsh  and  unwise  to  many. 
The  Tao-Te-King  anticipates  Plato  in  asserting  the  meta- 
physical principle  that  contraries  mutually  produce  each 
other.  It  contains  many  prudential  maxims  for  ruling 
every-day  life  and  political  maxims  for  ruling  the  state, 
the  latter  conveying  doctrine  sadly  needed  in  these  our 
days  of  over-governing,  and  which  are  intensified  in 
these  two  sententious  aphorisms:  "Who  rules  ruins," 
"To  rule  men  and  serve  heaven  nothing  is  comparable 
to  moderation."  Capital  punishment  is  declared  to  be 
not  only  wrong,  but  ineffectual.  No  personal  God  is 
mentioned,  no  devotional  observance  enjoined  save  that 
ancestor  worship  is  alluded  to  as  any  other  existing  cus- 
tom might  be.  In  like  way  spiritual  beings  are  men- 
tioned, but  they  are  mostly  terrestrial  demons.  Further 
than  this  there  is  nothing  said  of  creed  or  rite,  temple, 
shrine  or  priest,  future  rewards  or  punishments,  or  in 
fact  of  any  "future  state  "  at  all. 

Old  Taoism  was  not  pessimistic  any  more  than  old 
Hinduism  was  in  the  times  when  length  of  life  and  not 
release  from  it  was  the  thing  most  desired,  and  good 
crops,  full  udders  and  fat  calves  were  prayed  for  rather 
than  spiritual  gifts.  Tao  was  practiced  for  what  Hindu 
yogis  scorn  and  spurn  as  obstructions  in  their  path, 
namely,  the  siddhis,  or  miraculous  powers,  the  siddhi 
chiefly  prized,  so  far  as  the  Tao-Te-King  reveals,  being 
the  ability  to  rule  a  state,  which  ability  seems  to  have 
lain  as  much  in  a  certain  magic  power  to  influence  the 
conduct  of  men  as  in  the  political  wisdom  that  was  sup- 


CHINESE   YOGA.  211 

posed  to  be  also  a  gift  of  Tao.  Rulers  of  Ancient  China 
have  carried  their  belief  in  these  gifts  so  far  that  it  was 
as  common  for  them  to  call  to  their  aid  to  serve  as  min- 
isters of  state,  governors  of  provinces  and  officials  of 
other  kinds,  hermits  from  the  woods  and  caves,  as  it  has 
been  for  British  sovereigns  to  call  to  their  aid  members 
of  the  landed  aristocracy.  And,  more  than  that,  in  com- 
paratively recent  times  two  of  the  Chinese  emperors 
have  actually  made  experiments  in  governing  their  sub- 
jects without  any  resort  to  force.  An  experiment  of 
the  opposite  sort  was  that  of  state  communism  tried 
during  some  twenty  years,  but  with  such  poor  success 
that  no  repetition  of  it  has  been  attempted.  The  fol- 
lowing is  a  synopsis  of  what  the  Tao-Te-King  affirms 
Tao  to  be,  to  make  which  complete  there  has  had  to  be 
a  few  repetitions  of  what  went  before: 

"  Tao  is  a  being;  the  first  principle;  being  that  is  be- 
tween heaven  and  earth;  void,  but  exhaustless;  the 
patriarch  of  all  beings,  veils  its  subtlety  and  tempers  its 
splendor  and  assimilates  itself  to  dust;  seems  to  subsist 
eternally;  its  parentage  unknown;  seems  to  have  pre- 
ceded the  '  master  of  heaven  ' ;  is  beyond  sense ;  eternal ; 
nameless;  formless;  re-entering  into  non-being;  vague; 
indetermined;  confused;  contains  images;  contains  be- 
ings; is  profound;  is  obscure;  has  a  spiritual  essence 
which  is  profoundly  true;  contains  an  infallible  witness 
(of  itself) ;  has  a  name  that  never  fails;  gives  birth  to  all 
beings ;  existed  before  the  heavens  and  the  earth  ;  is  calm, 
is  immaterial;  circulates  everywhere  without  danger;  can 
be  regarded  as  the  mother  of  the  universe;  has  no  name, 
but  may  be  called  Tao  (Way) ;  is  grand,  fugacious,  re- 
mote; returning;  is  little,  but  the  whole  world  cannot 
conquer  it ;  gives  power  over  all  things  to  those  who  have 
it;^s  soon  as  it  was  divided  it  took  a  name;  it  is  spread 
throughout  the  universe;  all  beings  return  to  it  as  rivers 
to  seas ;  it  extends  in  all  directions ;  there  is  not  a  creature, 
animal  or  plant  that  does  not  possess  it;  all  beings  rely 


213  CHINESE   YOGA. 

on  it  to  give  them  birth,  and  it  repels  none;  it  loves  and 
nourishes  all  beings,  and  regards  not  itself  as  their  master ; 
is  without  desires;  all  beings  submit  themselves  to  it;  its 
movement  is  produced  by  return  to  non-being ;  to  be  weak 
is  the  function  of  Tao ;  it  conducts  beings  to  perfection ; 
is  a  great  square  of  which  the  angles  are  not  seen  ;  a  great 
vase  which  seems  far  from  being  finished;  a  great  voice 
of  which  the  sound  is  imperceptible;  a  great  image  of 
whom  the  form  is  not  seen;  produces  beings  which  Te 
(virtue)  nourishes;  and  to  which  the  two  give  bodies, 
which  they  perfect  by  a  secret  forcible  impulsion;  Tao 
nourishes  beings;  makes  them  to  grow;  feeds  them,  pro- 
tects them;  produces  without  appropriating  them,  nor 
takes  glory  to  itself;  reigns  over  but  leaves  them  free; 
behold  a  profound  goodness!  Tao  was  the  principle  of  the 
world  and  has  become  its  mother;  it  should  be  cultivated 
by  all;  evil  spirits,  however  powerful,  do  no  harm  in  a 
kingdom  governed  by  Tao ;  it  is  the  asylum  of  all  beings ; 
the  treasure  of  the  virtuous  man  and  the  support  of  the 
wicked  one;  is  found  naturally,  without  searching  all  day 
for  it;  by  it  the  guilty  obtain  liberty  and  life." 

Let  the  reader  now,  bearing  in  mind  what  has  been  be- 
fore particularized  concerning  the  Hindu  yogis,  compare 
it  with  the  followingdetailsquoted  from  the  Tao-Te-King: 

"The  saint  makes  it  his  business  to  do  nothing,  and 
his  instructions  to  consist  in  silence  ;  the  saint  withdraws 
himself  from  his  body,  and  his  body  preserves  itself;  has 
no  private  interests ;  keeps  down  his  desires ;  casts  off  all 
desires;  practices  non-action  ;  occupies  himself  with  non- 
occupation  ;  does  not  fail,  because  he  does  not  act ;  makes 
his  desires  consist  in  the  absence  of  all  desire,  and  his 
studies  to  consist  in  the  absence  of  all  study;  fears  glory 
as  he  would  shame;  his  body  weighs  on  him  as  a  great 
calamity;  without  leaving  his  house  he  knows  the  Uni- 
verse; gets  where  he  wants  to  be  without  taking  a  step; 
can  name  objects  without  seeing  them;  without  acting 
accomplishes  great  things;  he  is  careful  of  his  body,  and 


CHINESE   YOGA.  213 

economizes  his  vital  forces;  he  who  knows  Tao  is  not 
learned;  he  who  is  learned  knows  not  Tao;  the  sage  is 
best  pleased  in  a  lowly  dwelling,  remote  from  the  crowd; 
in  ancient  times  those  who  excelled  in  practicing  Tao 
were  shrewd,  subtle,  abstracted,  penetrating,  profound 
beyond  fathoming;  were  timid,  irresolute,  shunning 
observation,  grave,  of  rude  exterior,  empty  as  a  valley, 
stupid  in  appearance;  the  sage  by  a  profound  calm 
gradually  grows  in  spirituality;  is  in  no  danger  from  man 
or  beast;  is  exempt  from  death;  he  shuts  his  mouth, 
closes  his  ears  and  eyes,  represses  his  activity,  releases 
himself  of  all  ties,  tempers  his  interior  light,  assimilates 
himself  to  the  vulgar;  he  attaches  himself  to  nothing, 
and  therefore  loses  nothing;  goes  poorly  clad;  only  he 
who  is  constantly  exempt  from  passions  can  see  his  own 
spiritual  essence;  there  is  no  greater  crime  than  to  de- 
liver yourself  over  to  your  desires,  no  greater  misfortune 
than  not  to  know  how  to  be  sufficient  unto  yourself,  no 
greater  calamity  than  the  desire  of  gain;  if  the  man  pre- 
serves unity  his  soul  and  body  may  remain  indissoluble." 

Chuang-  Tzic. 

An  examination  into  old  Taoism  that  should  neglect 
the  writings  of  Chuang-Tzu,  the  great  disciple  of  Lao- 
Tsee,  who  lived  three  hundred  years  later  than  his  master, 
would  be  incomplete.  He  was  more  than  a  disciple,  for 
besides  amplifying  his  teacher's  work,  he  covered  much 
new  ground,  being  as  bold  an  originator  as  he  was  a  clear 
expositor.  He  made  an  impression  on  the  minds  of  his 
countrymen  that  has  endured  till  this  day,  although  one 
of  his  commentators  says  that  none  exists  capable  of 
understanding  him,  and  he  himself  said  he  would  never 
be  understood. 

Here  are  a  few  passages  from  writings  attributed  to 
him,  Giles'  translation: 

"  At  the  beginning  of  the  beginning  even  nothing  did 
not  exist.     Then  came  the  period  of  the  nameless." 


214  CHINESE    YOGA. 

"  Let  knowledge  stop  at  the  unknowable." 
"  There  is  nothing  on  earth  that  does  not  rise  and  fall, 
but  nothing  ever  perishes  altogether." 

"To  put  yourself  in  subjective  relations  with  exter- 
nals, without  consciousness  of  their  objectivity,  recogniz- 
ing that  all  things  are  One — that  is  Tao." 

Subjective  Results  of  Tao  Attainment. 

"But  man  can  attain  to  formlessness  and  vanquish 
death.  Man  may  abide  in  the  everlasting.  He  may 
bring  nature  to  a  condition  of  One." 

"One  who  extends  his  sway  over  heaven  and  earth 
and  influences  all  things,  and  who,  lodging  within  the 
confines  of  a  body  with  its  channels  of  sight  and  sound, 
brings  his  knowledge  to  know  that  all  things  are  One, 
and  that  his  soul  endures  forever." 

"  He  who  knows  what  God  is  and  knows  what  man  is 
has  attained.  Knowing  what  God  is,  he  knows  that  he 
himself  proceeded  from  thence."  * 

"Cherish  that  which  is  within  you,  and  shut  off  that 
which  is  without,  for  much  learning  is  a  curse.  Then  I 
will  place  you  upon  that  abode  of  great  light  which  is  the 
source  of  the  positive  power,  and  escort  you  through  the 
gate  of  profound  mystery,  which  is  the  source  of  the  neg- 
ative power.  These  powers  are  the  controllers  of  heaven 
and  earth,  and  each  contains  the  other." 

The  Lesser  Siddhis. 
The  Taoist  sages  had  power  to  transform  themselves 
to  the  eyes  of  others.  Thus  Hu  Tzu,  when  a  famous  ma- 
gician came  to  see  him,  showed  himself  first  as  decrepit 
and  near  to  death,  next  as  having  still  some  recuperative 
power  left,  next  as  in  full  health,  and  lastly  "as  Tao 
appeared  before  time  was,"  whereupon  the  visitor  ran 

*  Mr.  Legge,  in  "Texts  of  Taoism,"  pronounces  the  frequent  intro- 
duction of  the  word  "God,"  by  Giles,  a  blot  on  the  translation,  painful 
to  the  eyes,  and  which  only  obscures  the  meaning  of  the  Taoist  writers. 


CHINESE    YOGA.  215 

away  in  terror.  Of  this  magician  it  is  said  that  "He 
knew  all  about  birth  and  death,  loss  and  gain,  misfortune 
and  happiness,  long  life  and  short  life — predicting  events 
to  a  day  with  supernatural  accuracy." 

Now,  gifts  like  these  last  were  also  possessed  by  the 
sages,  but  were  for  some  reason  contemned  by  Lao- 
Tsee,  who  calls  them  "false  knowledge,  which  is  but  the 
flower  of  Tao  and  the  principle  of  ignorance,"  reminding 
us  of  the  yogis  contempt  for  all  the  siddhis,  including 
what  the  Taoist  saints  accepted  as  well  as  what  they  re- 
jected. And  yet  the  very  book  in  which  he  wrote  this 
was  saved  from  the  general  burning  (ordered  by  a  certain 
emperor,  in  order  to  start  history  afresh  with  his  reign) 
only  because  it  was  a  book  of  divination. 

Tao  Practice. 

Though  ancient  Taoism  has  left  no  manual  of  practice 
such  as  ancient  Yoga  has,  the  following  from  Chuang- 
Tzu  seem  to  recognize  that  a  system  of  practice  existed 
and  that  time  was  an  important  element  of  it.     He  says: 

* '  Preserve  your  form  complete  and  your  vitality  secure. 
Let  no  anxious  thoughts  intrude.  And  then  in  three 
years  you  may  attain  to  this." 

"  One  year  after  receiving  your  instructions  I  became 
naturally  simple.  After  two  years  I  could  adapt  myself 
as  required.  After  three  years  I  understood.  After 
four  years  my  intelligence  developed.  After  five  years 
it  was  complete.  After  six  years  the  spirit  entered  into 
me.  After  seven  I  knew  God.  After  eight  life  and 
death  existed  for  me  no  more.     After  nine,  perfection." 

The  following,  however,  seems  to  imply  that  for  "the 
right  sort  of  man  "  there  is  a  short  cut  to  attainment, 
and  by  methods  which,  if  disclosed,  would  suggest  the 
most  mysterious  of  the  Yoga  madras,  the  Vajroli. 

Nan  Po  Tzu  Kuel  said  to  Nii  Yii,  by  one  authority  said 
to  be  a  woman  :  "  You  are  old,  but  your  countenance  is 
like  that  of  a  child.     How  is  this  ?  " 


216  CHINESE    YOGA. 

Nii  Yii  replied,  "I  have  learned  Tao." 

♦'  Could  I  get  it  by  studying  ?  "  asked  the  other. 

*'  I  fear  not,"  said  Nii  Yii.  "  You  are  not  the  sort  of 
a  man.  There  was  Pu  Laing  I.  He  had  all  the  qualifi- 
cations of  a  sage,  but  not  Tao.  Now  I  had  Tao,  though 
none  of  the  qualifications.  But  do  you  imagine  that 
much  as  I  wished  it  I  was  able  to  teach  Tao  to  him  so 
that  he  could  be  a  perfect  sage  ?  Had  it  been  so,  then' 
to  teach  Tao  to  one  who  has  the  qualifications  of  a  sage 
would  be  an  easy  matter.  No,  sir.  I  imparted  it  to 
him  as  though  withholding;  and  in  three  days  for  him 
this  sublunary  state  had  ceased  to  exist.  When  he  had 
attained  to  this,  I  withheld  again;  and  in  seven  days 
more  the  external  world  had  ceased  to  be.  And  so  again 
for  another  nine  days,  when  he  became  unconscious  of 
his  own  existence.  He  became  etherealized,  next  pos- 
sessed of  perfect  wisdom,  then  without  past  or  present, 
and  finally  able  to  enter  there  where  life  and  death  are 
no  more — where  killing  does  not  take  away  life,  nor 
does  prolongation  of  life  add  to  the  duration  of  exist- 
ence. In  that  state  he  is  ever  in  accord  with  the  exi- 
gencies of  his  environment;  and  this  is  to  be  battered  but 
not  bruised.  And  he  who  can  be  thus  battered  but  not 
bruised  is  on  his  way  to  perfection." 

"  And  how  did  you  manage  to  get  hold  of  all  this  ?  " 
asked  the  other. 

"I  got  it  from  books,"  replied  Nii  Yii;  "and  the 
books  got  it  from  learning,  and  learning  from  investiga- 
tion, and  investigation  from  co-ordination,  and  co-ordi- 
nation from  application,  and  application  from  desire  to 
know,  and  desire  to  know  from  the  unknown,  and  the 
unknown  from  the  great  void,  and  the  great  void  from 
infinity!  " 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

EGYPTIAN    YOGA. 

The  earliest  records  of  the  religion  of  Egypt  tell  of  a 
very  philosophically  conceived  god,  without  beginning 
or  end.  The  sole  progenitor  in  heaven  and  earth,  un- 
created and  self-begotten.  "  But,"  says  Mr.  Lenorment, 
"this  sublime  notion,  if  it  was  retained  in  the  esoteric 
doctrine,  soon  became  obscured  and  disfigured  by  the 
conceptions  of  the  priests  and  the  ignorance  of  the  peo- 
ple." The  exoteric  notions,  which  prevailed  over  it,  had 
to  do  with  secondary  and  personal  deities  only,  and 
Egyptian  magic  occupied  itself  merely  with  the  hosts  of 
these.  They  were  ruled  over  by  a  god  in  chief,  it  is 
true,  but  he  was  one  of  their  own  sort,  being  like 
Jehovah,  a  promoted  tutelary  divinity.  At  each  of  the 
many  removals  of  the  capital  city  from  the  lower  valley 
of  the  Nile  in  the  direction  of  its  source,  from  time  to 
time  made  necessary  by  the  shifting  that  way  of  the 
centre  of  population,  a  new  god  in  chief  had  to  be 
installed,  since  the  custom  of  the  country  made  the  local 
deity  of  the  district  ex-officio  Lord  of  the  Universe. 
Here  there  was  no  Brahman  into  which  souls  could  be 
absorbed.  Nor  did  the  Egyptian  religion,  though  in- 
cluding belief  in  re-births,  allow  any  means  of  escape 
from  them  by  absorption  in  any  god,  high  or  low,  or  in 
fact  in  any  mode  whatever. 

Yet  Egypt  had  a  yoga,  and  one  which,  like  all  others, 
was  only  attainable  through  rigorous  self-discipline, 
which,  acting  on  the  very  nature  of  the  practicer,  trans- 
formed him  into  a  magician.  It  amounted  to  a  junction, 
and   a   junction    with    a   god.      All    magical    work    was 


218  EGYPTIAN  YOGA. 

esteemed  to  be  no  more  nor  no  less  than  god-work. 
What  a  god  could  do  a  magician  could,  and  what  a 
magician  could  do  a  god  could.  Thus,  just  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Hindu  idea  of  absorption  in  Brahman,  that 
of  assimilation  with  a  secondary  divinity  would  naturally 
arise  in  the  Egyptian  magician's  conceit,  as  one  by  one 
he  acquired,  by  his  efforts  and  patience,  god-like  powers, 
while  the  blissful  experiences  underwent,  together  with 
the  bewildering  sensations  of  the  trance,  always  incident 
to  yoga  practice,  would  aid  the  illusion. 

Mr.  Lenorment  says:  "There  was,  indeed,  a  formal  be- 
lief in  ancient  Egypt,  which  was  attested  by  numerous 
passages  from  the  religious  texts,  that  the  knowledge  of 
divine  things  elevated  a  man  to  the  heights  of  the  gods, 
identified  him  with  them,  and  ended  by  blending  his  sub- 
stance with  that  of  the  divine.  The  primary  idea  of  all 
the  magic  formula  which  were  designed  to  repel  the  tor- 
ments of  life  and  the  attacks  of  venomous  animals  was 
always  assimilation  to  the  gods.  The  virtue  of  the 
formula  lay  not  in  an  invocation  of  the  divine  power,  but 
in  the  fact  of  a  man's  proclaiming  himself  such  or  such  a 
god,  and  when  he,  in  pronouncing  the  incantation,  called 
to  his  aid  any  one  of  the  various  members  of  the  Egyp- 
tian Pantheon,  it  was  as  one  of  themselves  that  he  had  a 
right  to  the  assistance  of  his  companions."  And  he 
quotes  an  incantation  in  which  the  magician  is  made  to 
say: 

*'  Do  not  be  against  me  !  I  am  Amen. 

"I  am  Anhur,  the  good  guardian. 

*'  I  am  the  great  master  of  the  sword. 

*'  Do  not  erect  thyself  !  I  am  Mouth, 

*'  Do  not  try  to  surprise  me  !  I  am  Set. 

"  Do  not  raise  thy  two  arms  against  me  !  lam  Sothis. 

*'Do  not  seize  me  !  I  am  Sethu." 

Such  was  Egyptian  yoga,  or  theurgry,  as  the  Neopla- 
tonists  named  it. 

Concerning  the  methods  of   practice,  Mr.  Lenorment, 


EGYPTIAN  YOGA.  219 

as  just  seen,  leaves  it  to  be  inferred  that  it  consisted  in 
"the  knowledge  of  divine  things,"  but  in  a  quotation 
he  gives  from  the  ritual  of  the  dead  there  is  more  than 
a  hint  that  in  Egypt,  as  elsewhere,  steadfast  concentra- 
tion was  the  key  to  that  knowledge,  with  austerities  for 
aids  and  trance  for  incident.  It  is  this:  "  This  chapter 
was  found  at  Seaenou,  written  in  blue,  upon  a  cube  of 
bloodstone  under  the  feet  of  a  great  god;  it  was  found 
in  the  days  of  King  Mycerinus,  the  veracious,  by  the 
royal  son  Hartatef,  when  he  was  travelling  to  inspect 
the  accounts  of  the  temples.  He  repeated  a  hymn  to 
himself,  after  which  he  went  into  ecstasies.  He  took  it 
away  in  the  King's  chariots  as  soon  as  he  saw  what  was 
written  upon  it.  It  is  a  great  mystery.  One  sees  and 
hears  nothing  else  while  reciting  this  pure  and  holy  chap- 
ter. Never  again  approach  a  woman ;  eat  neither  meat 
or  fish." 

A  very  full  exposition  of  Egyptian  magic  is  found  in 
the  celebrated  reply  of  Jamblichus,  the  neoplatonist,  to 
a  letter  written  by  Porphery  as  if  to  a  priest  of  Egypt, 
making  enquiries  about  the  religion  of  that  country,  in 
which  reply  it  is  strenuously  argued  that  magical  works 
are  performed  by  divine  and  not  by  human  power,  and 
that  to  attain  to  that  state  of  union  with  the  gods  by 
means  of  which  their  abilities  may  be  appropriated  for 
the  benefit  of  men,  philosophical  thought  is  of  no  value, 
but  only  theurgic  work.  He  says,  concerning  this  last: 
"For  a  conception  of  the  mind  does  not  conjoin  theur- 
gists  with  the  gods;  since  if  this  were  the  case  what 
would  hinder  those  who  philosophize  theoretically  from 
having  a  theurgic  union  with  the  gods  ?  Now,  however, 
in  reality  this  is  not  the  case.  For  the  perfect  efficacy 
of  ineffable  works,  which  are  divinely  performed  in  a  way 
surpassing  all  intelligence,  and  the  power  of  inexplicable 
symbols,  which  are  known  only  to  the  gods,  impart 
theurgic  union.  Hence  we  do  not  perform  these  things 
through    intellectual    perception.     Nevertheless,    effica- 


220  EGYPTIAN   YOGA. 

cious  union  is  not  effected  without  knowledge;  yet 
knowledge  does  not  possess  a  sameness  with  this  union." 
This  is  quite  opposite  to  the  teaching  of  the  later  Hindu 
writers  on  Yoga,  who  make  Yoga  to  consist  in  knowledge, 
and  also  contradicts  the  implication  of  what  has  just 
been  quoted  from  Lenorment  that  the  efficient  means  of 
attaining  assimilation  with  Egyptian  divinities  was  "the 
knowledge  of  divine  things,"  unless  it  mean  knowing ,^i7Z£/ 
to  practice  Yoga.  This  efficacious  union  once  attained, 
the  adept  may  be  supposed  to  perform  magical  works  in 
the  same  way  as  gods  do,  whatever  that  may  be.  But 
the  mode  of  union  is  not  always  the  same.  Jamblichus 
says  concerning  it:  "For  either  divinity  possesses  us, 
or  we  give  ourselves  wholly  to  divinity,  or  we  have  a 
common  energy  with  him.  And  sometimes,  indeed,  we 
participate  of  the  last  power  of  divinity,  sometimes  of 
his  middle,  and  sometimes  of  his  first  power.  Some- 
times, also,  there  is  participation  only,  at  other  times 
communion  likewise,  and  sometimes  a  union  of  these. 
Again,  either  the  soul  alone  enjoys  the  inspiration,  or 
the  soul  receives  it  in  conjunction  with  the  body,  or  it 
is  also  participated  by  the  common  animal  "  (formed  by 
union  of  soul  and  body). 

The  presence  of  the  invoked  deity  "  is  indicated  by 
the  motions  of  the  body,  and  of  certain  parts  of  it,  by 
the  perfect  rest  of  the  body,  by  harmonious  orders  and 
dances,  and  by  elegant  sounds,  or  the  contraries  of 
these.  Either  the  body  likewise  is  seen  to  be  elevated, 
or  increased  in  bulk,  or  to  be  borne  along  sublimely  in 
the  air,  or  the  contraries  of  these  are  seen  to  take  place 
about  it.  An  equability,  also  of  voice,  according  to 
magnitude,  or  a  great  variety  of  voice  after  intervals  of 
silence,  may  be  observed.  And,  again,  sometimes  the 
sounds  have  a  musical  intension  and  remission,  and 
sometimes  they  are  strained  and  relaxed  after  a  different 
manner." 

He  who  drew  down  a  god  saw  a  spirit  descend  and 


EGYPTIAN  YCGA.  221 

enter  into  some  person,  and  that  person  was  controlled 
by  it.  And  a  species  of  fire  was  seen  by  the  recipient, 
and  sometimes  by  the  spectators  also,  either  when  the 
divinity  was  descended,  or  when  he  was  departing,  from 
scientifical  observation  of  which  what  were  the  powers 
of  the  God  could  be  known,  and  also  what  he  knew  and 
could  truly  tell.  Another  indication  of  the  presence  of 
a  god  was  the  stupefaction  of  the  person  possessed  by 
him,  "  his  own  proper  consciousness  and  motion  being 
entirely  exterminated,"  as  expressed  by  Jamblichus,  who 
thence  derives  an  argument  for  the  exclusive  agency  of 
the  gods,  which  his  queerist  had  doubted. 

First  in  order  among  the  fruits  of  Egyptian  Yoga  was 
the  power  of  invocation,  whereby  the  gods  might  be 
called  down  and  compelled  to  put  themselves  in  evidence 
before  the  multitude,  so  that  none  should  doubt,  and  to 
do  and  reveal  what  should  be  required  of  them;  but  this 
only  in  a  phantasmal  way,  the  gods  themselves  remaining 
in  heaven  the  while. 

Not  only  gods,  but  all  beings  of  "  more  excellent 
natures "  than  men,  were  thus  amenable  to  theurgic 
science.  Jamblichus  devotes  ten  pages  to  describing  the 
different  orders  of  these  and  the  signs  by  which  each 
might  be  known.  Answering  the  question  of  Porphery: 
*'  By  what  indication  the  presence  of  a  god,  or  an  angel, 
or  an  archangel,  or  a  daemon,  or  a  certain  archon,  or  a 
soul,  may  be  known  ? "  he  begins  his  reply  by  saying 
that  "  their  appearance  accords  with  their  essences, 
powers  and  energies.  For  such  as  they  are,  such  also 
do  they  appear  to  those  that  invoke  them,  and  they  ex- 
hibit energies  and  ideas  consentaneous  to  themselves 
and  proper  indications  of  themselves.  But  that  we  may 
descend  to  particulars,  the  phantasma  or  luminous  ap- 
pearances of  the  gods  are  uniform;  those  of  dsemons  are 
various;  those  of  angels  are  more  simple  than  those  of 
daemons,  but  are  subordinate  to  those  of  the  gods;  those 
of  archangels  approximate  in  a  greater  degree  to  divine; 


222  EGYPTIAN  YOGA. 

but  those  of  archons  (spirits  of  the  planets)  will  be  vari- 
ous," and  those  of  souls  will  appear  to  be  all-various. 
And  the  phantasmata,  indeed,  of  the  gods  will  be  seen 
shining  with  a  salutary  light;  those  of  archangels  will  be 
terrible  and  at  the  same  time  mild;  those  of  daemons  will 
be  dreadful;  those  of  heroes  are  milder  than  those  of 
daemons;  but  those  of  archons,  if  their  dominion  pertains 
to  the  world,  produce  astonishment,  but  if  they  are 
material  they  are  obnoxious  and  painful  to  the  spec- 
tators; and  those  of  souls  are  similar  to  the  heroic  phan- 
tasma,  except  that  they  are  inferior  to  them."  Else- 
where images  of  souls  are  said  to  appear  to  be  "of  a 
shadowy  form."  The  souls  thus  named  as  holding  the 
lowest  place  in  the  chain  of  intermediaries  were  "unde- 
filed  souls,"  who  had  never  incarnated,  but  had  left 
their  companions  in  heaven  to  descend  among  men  as 
ministers  of  good. 

In  like  manner  Jamblichus  then  goes  on  to  describe 
each  order  of  intermediaries  with  respect  to  essence, 
energy,  movement,  attendant  retinue,  array,  accompany- 
ing lights  and  fires,  modes  of  self-purifications,  effects 
produced  on  men  by  its  presence,  tenuity  and  subtlety 
of  emitted  light,  and,  lastly,  influence  of  the  dispositions 
of  the  souls  of  those  who  evoke  them.  Other  fruits  of 
Egyptian  Yoga  were:  divination  of  the  divine  sort,  by 
which  the  gods  are  induced  to  impart  such  knowledge  as 
they  alone  possess,  which  they  do  by  means  of  dreams, 
trance-speaking  oracles,  seeing  in  water,  "eduction  of 
light,''  meaning  the  observation  of  the  mutations  of  light 
and  shadow,  and  in  other  ways,  thus  revealing  past  and 
future  events  and  all  the  secrets  of  nature;  ability  to  go 
to  inaccessible  places  ;  to  float  on  water  ;  to  move 
through  the  air;  insensibility  to  pain;  invulnerability 
to  all  violence,  whether  from  the  hand  of  man  or  the 
physical  powers  of  nature;  superiority  over  those  powers; 
immunity  from  evil  spirits  and  malefic  magic;  power  to 


EGYPTIAN  YOGA.  223 

make  evil  and  impure  souls  pure  and  virtuous;  to  call 
down  fire  from  heaven  and  make  statues  laugh. 

Egyptian  sacerdotal  magic  was  practiced  as  well  for 
the  purpose  of  indirectly  controlling  the  people  through 
the  wonders  it  exhibited  and  the  benefits  it  conferred,  as 
for  obtaining  a  direct  control  of  their  wills  of  the  mes- 
meric sort,  whereby  they  would  be  made  to  do  the  bid- 
ding of  their  priestly  rulers  without  regard  to  fear  or 
gratitude,  but  as  of  necessity;  just  as  in  old  Taoism. 
But  no  more  than  the  yoga  practicers  of  ancient  China 
did  those  of  ancient  Egypt  expect  deliverance  from  re- 
birth to  come  in  the  shape  of  absorption  in  any  god.  If 
Jamblichus  speaks  of  the  ascent  of  the  soul  after  becom- 
ing liberated  from  the  bonds  of  necessity  and  fate,  it  is 
to  reinhabit  its  original  home  wherein  from  eternity  it 
had  enjoyed  its  individuality  of  being;  and  when  he 
mentions  union  with  a  god,  he  does  not  mean  the  god, 
but  such  one  of  the  secondary  divinities  as  is  specially 
adapted  to  do  the  business  in  hand,  and  the  union  is  but 
for  a  temporary  purpose.  And  the  power  thus  obtained 
was  not  omnipotence  nor  the  knowledge  omniscience, 
the  assertions  of  Jamblichus,  which  look  the  other  way, 
to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  But  it  is  easy  to  see 
how  the  lower  idea  of  theurgic  union,  which  certainly 
prevailed  in  Egypt  to  the  exclusion  of  any  other,  might 
give  birth  to  the  higher  one  of  the  Neoplatonists  and  the 
still  higher  one  of  the  Hindus, 

Besides  sacerdotal  theurgy,  always  considered  a  branch 
of  magic,  magic  of  a  secular  sort  was  largely  practiced  in 
Egypt.  Practicers  of  this  are  probably  meant  by  Jamb- 
lichus when  he  says:  "  There  are  a  certain  few  who,  by 
employing  a  certain  supernatural  power  of  intellect, 
become  superior  to  physical  powers."  It  is  probable  that 
this  secular  magic  is  the  kind  referred  to  in  the  "  Meta- 
morphosis "  of  Apuleius,  that  could  turn  rapid  rivers  to 
flow  back  to  their  fountains,  congeal  the  sea,  take  away 


224  EGYPTIAN  YOGA. 

the  Strength  of  the  winds,  hold  back  the  sun  from  his 
courses,  force  the  moon  to  scatter  her  foam,  tear  the 
stars  from  their  orbits,  take  away  the  day  and  detain  the 
night.  Allusions  are  also  made  to  magic  of  much  darker 
hue,  in  which  evil  spirits  are  concerned,  which  class  of 
beings  seem  to  have  performed  for  Egyptian  ecclesiasti- 
cism  the  same  kindly  office  which  the  Christian  devil 
does  for  the  Christian  Church,  that  of  taking  the  blame 
for  all  that  goes  wrong,  and  especially  for  whatever 
miracle  does  not  testify  in  that  Church's  favor. 

Concerning  the  yoga  practice  of  the  Egyptian  priest- 
hood, whereby  its  members  became  prophets,  Jamblichus 
gives  hardly  a  hint.  But  yoga  attainment  presupposes 
quietude  and  concentration,  and  that  these  were  Egyptian 
methods  other  authorities  reveal.  He  dwells,  however, 
on  the  magical  work  by  means  of  which  the  theurgist 
once  qualified  brought  himself  for  the  time  being  into  a 
state  of  union  with  a  god,  or,  as  it  seemed  to  him,  brought 
the  god  down  to  him;  these  means  consisted  in  temple 
ritual,  and  that  may  be  summed  up  in  sacrifice  incanta- 
tion and  prayer.  Jamblichus  defends  the  sacrificing  of 
animals  with  a  finesse  of  argument  that  makes  it  hard  to 
recognize  in  the  practice  our  old  acquaintance  ghost- 
feeding.  Prayer  was  of  three  kinds,  one  of  which  pro- 
cured illumination,  one  communion  of  operation  with 
the  gods,  and  the  third  "a  perfect  plenitude  of  divine 
fire."  The  continual  exercise  of  prayer  was  supposed 
to  strengthen  the  intellect,  and  render  the  soul  receptive 
to  the  communications  of  the  gods.  Sometimes  it  was 
effective  without  sacrifice,  though  sacrifice  was  never 
effective  without  it,  which  allows  a  suspicion  to  arise 
that  it  was  prayer  alone — or  the  concentration  of  mind 
involved  in  it — that  did  the  work,  and  that  the  roasted 
meats  really  served  no  other  purpose  than  to  replenish  the 
larders  of  the  priests.  In  their  invocations  these  often 
used  violent  language,  threatening  to  raze  the  temples 
to    the    ground,  burst  the    dome    of   heaven    and  make 


EGYPTIAN  YOGA.  225 

known  to  the  world  the  secrets  of  Great  Isis.  Which 
Jamblichus  excuses  on  the  ground  that  it  was  in  his  ca- 
pacity as  temporary  god  that  the  priest  thus  threatened 
his  fellow  divinities;  and  he  undertakes  also  to  justify 
the  erection  of  Phalli  and  the  use  of  obscene  lan- 
guage. 


CHAPTER   XX. 

AKKADIAN     YOGA. 

In  very  early  times  a  portion  of  the  Tauranian  race 
inhabited  the  mountainous  region  about  the  headwaters 
of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  named  from  their  habitat 
Akkadians,  or  mountainers,  while  another  portion  of  the 
same  race  dwelt  in  the  neighboring  valleys  and  were 
known  as  Sumirians,  or  lowlanders.  In  still  very  early 
times  both  moved  southward  into  the  lower  basin  of 
those  rivers,  afterwards  to  be  known  as  Babylonia  and 
Assyria,  of  which  country  they  were  in  full  possession 
when  the  Semites  came  there,  as  also  of  Media,  when  the 
Persians  conquered  it.  These  Akkadians  were  a  master- 
ful people.  Their  civilization  was  certainly  as  ancient  as 
any  we  know  of.  Their  system  of  magic  was  older  than 
that  of  Egypt.  They  invented  the  cuneiform  writing 
which,  inscribed  on  tiles  now  being  exhumed  by  tens  of 
thousands,  is  conveying  to  the  modern  world  their  long- 
buried  history.  They,  and  not  Chaldean  shepherds,  dis- 
covered astrology — that  is  to  say,  astronomy.  A  tribe 
of  them,  the  Kaldu  or  Kaldi,  gave  name  to  all  Chaldea, 
besides  dictating  to  it  their  magic  and  religion,  while 
another  tribe,  the  Magii,  constituted  itself  an  hereditary 
priesthood,  which  at  one  time  became  civil  rulers  also  of 
the  Persian  Empire.  Their  criminal  laws  were  mild,  and 
it  is  most  noteworthy  that  their  civil  laws  accorded  to 
woman  large  rights,  both  of  person  and  property,  and 
over  her  children  power  above  that  of  the  father.  Mas- 
pero  says  that  the  graves  and  tombs  of  Chaldea  show 
that  a  portion  of  its  population  burnt  the  bodies  of  the 
dead,  and  infers  that  they  were  the  Sumirians,  that  is, 


AKKADIAN  YOGA.  227 

Akkadians,  who  are  by  other  authorities  alleged  to  have 
corrupted  the  religion  of  the  Persians  by  introducing 
cremation  among  them,  and  to  have  been  the  originators 
of  it,  in  fact.  In  the  refined  and  spiritual  dispositions 
thus  evinced,  those  of  us  who  do  not  take  our  ideas  of 
mortuary  decencies  from  the  grave-dwellers  of  Egypt 
and  Chaldea  will  find  another  proof  of  racial  superiority. 
It  is  also  recorded  of  them  that  they  were  able  courtiers, 
which  means  that  they  were  accomplished  gentlemen. 
Of  the  branch  of  them  that  settled  in  Finland  we  learn 
that  their  worship  was  all  done  in  the  family,  with  only 
the  parents  for  ministers,  and  that,  though  they  had 
magicians,  they  had  no  priests.  Self-reliance  that  can 
dispense  with  priestly  aid,  though  it  may  imperil  souls, 
must  be  admitted  to  be  evidence  of  strong  minds  and 
robust  wills  even  in  these  days,  but  in  times  when  the 
aspects  and  activities  of  nature  were  but  little  under- 
stood, and  in  a  region  where  these  were  so  wonderful 
and  terrible  as  in  Finland,  it  was  surely  as  heroic  a 
quality  as  a  people  could  possess.  Then  as  to  their 
literature,  the  Kalevala  is  well  worthy  of  a  place  among 
the  great  epic  poems  of  the  world. 

But  the  Akkadians,  like  the  Hindus  cradled  in  a  robust 
climate,  and,  like  them,  tempted  southward  into  a  luxuri- 
ous but  enervating  one,  found  in  their  new  home  even 
a  surer,  if  not  more  rapid,  deterioration  than  they. 
Merged  in  the  inferior  race  they  had  instructed  and 
civilized,  they  long  ago  lost  place  in  history;  their 
language  ceased  to  be  spoken  three  thousand  years  ago 
even  in  countries  where  it  remained  a  classic  and  sacred 
tongue  a  thousand  years  longer.  And  what  was  the 
Yoga  of  this  people,  so  intelligent,  receptive  and  con- 
structive, and  of  origin  so  early  that  their  interpretation 
of  the  "mystical  phenomena  of  human  nature"  had  the 
advantage  of  being  first  impressions,  and  their  elabora- 
tion of  them  that  of  untramelled  mental  freedom?  It 
was  neither  absorption  in  a  primary  god,  like  that  of  the 


228  AKKADIAN  YOGA. 

Hindus,  nor  yet  assimilation  with  a  secondary  one,  like 
that  of  the  Egyptians,  but  consisted  in  union  of  the  outer 
man  with  an  inward  entity  which  yet  could  not  be  desig- 
nated as  soul.  The  Persians  names  such  Fravishis^  and 
their  descendants,  the  Parsees,  now  call  them  Fervors. 
Lenorment  says,  concerning  them:  "They  were  the 
simple  essence  of  all  things,  the  celestial  creatures  cor- 
responding to  the  terrestrial,  of  which  they  were  the 
immortal  types.  Every  created  being  had  his  Fravishi, 
who  was  invoked  in  prayers  and  sacrifices  (the  Japanese 
of  to-day  prays  directly  to  his  *  Lord  Soul '),  and  was 
the  invisible  protector,  who  watched  untiringly  over  the 
being  to  whom  he  was  attached."  These  Fravishis,  the 
same  author  says,  were  obviously  the  Chaldean  personal 
spirits  of  each  being  and  each  object  in  nature,  and  that 
the  Chaldeans  got  the  belief  in  them  from  the  Akkadians, 
the  Finnic  branch  of  which  race  had  the  same.  He  goes 
on  to  say:  *'In  the  same  way  that  every  man  had  his 
Fravishi,  according  to  the  most  recent  books  of  the 
Avesta,  so,  also,  according  to  the  Akkadian  magical 
tablets — and  this  doctrine  was  continually  brought  out 
in  them — had  every  man  from  the  hour  of  his  birth  a 
special  god  attached  to  him,  who  lived  with  him  as  his 
protector  and  as  his  spiritual  type,  or,  as  they  expressed 
the  same  idea,  a  divine  couple,  a  god  and  a  goddess,  pure 
spirits. "  But  this  god,  called  so  by  courtesy,  was  "  of  a 
peculiar  character,  partaking  of  human  nature  its  imper- 
fections and  foibles. "  Nor  was  he  as  good  and  powerful 
as  a  real  god  should  be.  In  fact,  both  the  Akkadian 
cylinders  and  the  Mazdean  books  make  him  a  part  of  the 
soul  of  his  man,  though  the  books  spiritualize  and  make 
him  more  perfect  than  the  cylinders  do. 

But  from  the  well-preserved  literature  of  the  Finns, 
who  held  on  to  their  old  religion  and  magic  until  some- 
time during  the  middle  ages,  much  more  satisfactory  in- 
formation bearing  on  this  subject  can  be  obtained.  Says 
M.  Lenorment:   "According  to  the  Finnish  creed,  each 


AKKADIAN  YOGA.  229 

man  bore  within  him  from  his  birth  a  divine  spirit  who 
was  his  inseparable  companion  for  life.  The  spirit  be- 
came more  closely  united  to  its  subject  in  proportion  as 
the  latter  tore  himself  away  from  earthly  things  to  enter 
into  the  sanctuary  of  his  soul.  This  was  an  important 
source  of  the  magician's  supernatural  power;  he  aspired 
to  a  transcendental  ecstasy,  tulla-intoon,  to  a  great  state 
of  excitement  of  the  soul,  tulla  haltiorhirt,  in  which  he 
became  like  the  spirit  dwelling  in  him,  and  entirely  iden- 
tified with  it.  He  used  artificial  means,  intoxicating  drugs 
for  instance,  in  order  to  attain  to  this  state  of  excitement, 
for  it  was  only  then,  so  to  speak,  that  he  succeeded  i-n 
deifying  himself.  This  doctrine,  which  M.  Rien  has  ex- 
plained very  clearly,  and  which  held  a  chief  place  in  the 
Finnish  religious  ideas,  as  also  in  their  magic,  is  just  that 
of  the  special  god  attached  to  each  man  and  dwelling  in 
his  body,  which  prevailed  also  in  the  Akkadian  magical 
books.  This  furnishes  an  affinity  of  conceptions  and 
beliefs  which  is  of  great  importance,  since  it  is  not  one 
of  those  natural  ideas  which  arise  independently  among 
widely  different  nations.  To  find  elsewhere  a  similar 
notion,  we  must  go  to  Persia  for  the  doctrines  of  the 
Fravishis. " 

But  if  it  is  not  "  one  of  those  natural  ideas  which  arise 
independently  among  different  nations, "the  natural  phe- 
nomena upon  which  it  rests  are  precisely  what  do  so  arise, 
for  they  depend  on  what  is  inherent  in  human  nature; 
and  these  being  given,  the  ideas  will  come  of  themselves, 
with  such  general  similarity  and  special  variation  as  may 
be  expected  of  the  workings  of  the  same  human  mind  in 
varying  conditions  of  time,  place  and  circumstance. 
From  the  above  we  see  that  Akkadian  Yoga  consisted  in 
an  union;  was  accompanied  by  an  ecstasy,  a  trance;  was 
best  attainable  through  renunciation  of  earthly  things 
and  seclusion  ;  was  aided  by  intoxicating  drugs,  like  the 
soma  of  the  Hindus,  and  invested  the  successful  practicer 
with  magical  powers.     Concentration  of   mind,  though 


230  AKKADIAN   YOGA. 

implied  in  the  foregoing,  is  not  directly  named  in  the 
authorities  consulted;  but  whoso  will  look  through  the 
tens  of  thousands  of  tiles  now  being  exhumed,  will  hardly 
fail  to  find  the  word  concentration  there.  The  Akkadian 
magicians  performed  their  work  as  such,  as  also  did  their 
gods,  almost  wholly  by  incantation.  Their  Finnic  rep- 
resentatives according  to  the  Kalevala  did  the  same. 
Wainamoinen,  "ancient  bard  and  famous  singer  " : 

"  Sang  aloft  a  famous  pine-tree, 

"  Till  it  pierced  the  clouds  in  growing 

"  With  its  golden  top  and  branches, 

"  Till  it  touched  the  very  heavens. 

' '  Now  he  sings  again  enchanting, 

"  Sings  the  moon  to  shine  forever 

"  In  the  fir-tree's  emerald  branches, 

"  In  the  top  he  sings  the  Great  Bear." 

Another  singer,  Lemminkainen: 

"  Quick  began  his  incantations, 

"  Straightway  sang  the  songs  of  witchcraft: 

"  From  his  fur  robe  darts  the  lightning. 

"  Flames  outshooting  from  his  eye-balls, 

"  From  the  magic  of  his  singing, 

"  From  his  wonderful  enchantment, 

"  Sang  the  very  best  of  singers 

"  To  (be)  the  very  worst  of  minstrels, 

"  Filled  their  mouths  with  dust  and  ashes, 

"  Piled  the  rocks  upon  their  shoulders, 

"  Stilled  the  best  of  Lapland  witches, 

"  Stilled  the  sorcerers  and  witches." 

Nor  did  he  stop  until  he  had  either  bewitched  or  ban- 
ished all  save  one  within  the  sound  of  his  voice.  And 
just  as  the  human  magicians  did,  Ukko,  the  creative 
divinity  of  the  Finns,  worked  chiefly  by  incantation.     He 

could 

"  Sing  the  origin  of  matter, 
"  Sing  the  legends  of  omniscience, 
"  Sing  his  songs  in  full  perfection. 
"  God  could  sing  the  floods  to  honey, 
"  Sing  the  sands  to  ruddy  berries, 
"  Sing  the  pebbles  into  barley, 


AKKADIAN  YOGA.  231 

"  Sing  to  beer  the  running  waters, 

"  Sing  to  salt  the  rocks  of  ocean, 

"  Into  cornfields  sing  the  forests, 

"  Into  gold  the  forest  fruitage, 

"  He  could  touch  the  springs  of  magic,"  etc., 

*'  He  could  turn  the  keys  of  nature,"  etc. 

And  even  Finnic  small  birds  sang  into  existence  the 
trees  whose  branches  they  perched  on. 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

MOHAMMEDAN    YOGA. 

Like  every  other  revealed  religion,  Mohammedanism 
had  magic  for  its  root;  but  it  was  poor  in  quality  and 
scant  in  quantity.  Its  founder  was,  like  every  other 
founder,  a  practicer  of  yoga,  but  he  was  a  very  partially 
developed  one,  notwithstanding  his  frequent  retreats 
within  the  grotto  of  Mount  Hera,  where,  during  twenty 
years  of  his  life,  he  was  accustomed  to  receive  communi- 
cations by  the  mouth  of  Gabriel.  As  a  man,  so  ignorant 
that  it  is  doubted  if  he  could  read  or  write,  as  a  saint  he 
never  attained  to  that  stage  in  the  path  where  intuition 
comes  in  to  supply  the  want  of  learning.  He  had  reached 
the  stage  of  "  meditation,"  but  not  that  of  "spiritual 
contemplation,"  as  John  of  the  Cross  called  the  one 
which  lies  next  beyond ;  nor  had  he  gone  very  far  in  medi- 
tation either,  which  is  the  state  wherein,  as  the  same  saint 
tells  us,  voices  are  heard  and  visions  seen  and  by  other 
exterior  methods  the  mind  is  addressed  through  the 
senses,  for  he  could  not  boast  of  having  seen  the  angel 
in  his  real  form  more  than  twice,  whereas  Swedenborg 
claimed  to  have  seen  and  conversed  with  Jesus  Christ 
himself  "thousands  of  times."  He  had  not  even  at- 
tained to  the  power  of  working  miracles  wherewith  to  set 
the  seal  to  his  revelations,  unless  the  pure  style  of  Arabic 
in  which  they  were  clothed  may  be  considered  such,  as, 
in  fact,  he  claimed  it  to  be.  The  Koran  is  by  reason  of 
its  diffuseness  and  repetitions  made  to  cover  some  five 
hundred  pages,  though  its  solid  contents  could  easily 
have  been  compressed  into  ten.  Its  language  is  often 
rugged  and  commonplace,    as  befits  a  discourse  by  an 


MOHAMMEDAN  YOGA.  233 

ignorant  man  to  ignorant  men,  like  that  of  Joe  Smitli,  the 
Mormon  prophet  or,  an  untaught  Methodist  exhorter; 
and  though  one  versed  in  Arabic  might  find  its  double- 
rhymed  lines  agreeable  to  the  ear,  he  not  so  versed,  who 
attempts  to  read  it  in  English,  is  apt  to  lay  it  down  be- 
fore the  end  is  reached  as  the  most  tiresome  book  he 
ever  took  up.  It  is  made  up  mostly  of  threats  of  eternal 
punishment  violently  and  with  much  ranting  denounced 
against  whoever  will  not  take  Mohammed's  word  for  it 
that  Allah  is  the  one  only  God  and  he  his  latest  prophet. 
Now,  in  this  Allah,  though  at  the  time  acting  as  chief  of 
all  other  Arabian  gods,  and  therefore  often  styled,  like 
the  Jehovah  of  the  Jews,  Most  High,  we  recognize  our 
former  acquaintance  who  jointly  with  his  wife  the  terri- 
ble Allat  ruled  over  the  Chaldean  hell;  so  it  is  not  won- 
derful that  threats  are  more  to  his  mind  than  persuasion, 
or  that  instead  of  employing  a  rival  deity  to  do  the  pun- 
ishing, as  is  usual,  he  attends  to  it  personally.  For  every 
page  of  the  Koran  there  is  a  threat  that  he  will  "tor- 
ment" disbelieving  or  disobeying  sinners,  and  through- 
out it  such  expressions  abound  as — "I  will  broil  you  in 
hell  fire" — "  I  will  pour  boiling  water  over  you" — "I 
will  make  you  to  drink  boiling  water."  But  with  all 
these  are  mingled  oft-repeated  assurances  that  his  pity 
and  mercy  are  unbounded,  for  every  sin  but  unbelief, 
that  is  to  say  he  will  pardon  all  offenders  against  others 
than  himself;  which  must  needs  greatly  weaken  the  effect 
of  his  fulminations,  since  they  threaten,  in  effect  to  send 
to  hell  only  those  who  don't  believe  he  can  do  it.  Ac- 
cordingly, his  prophet  had  in  the  end  to  adopt  the  method 
of  cutting  off  heads  after  the  manner  of  King  Clovis  in 
evangelizing  the  Saxons,  and  with  like  good  results. 
Thus,  except  that  Mohammed's  few  first  conversions, 
mostly  of  relatives  and  friends  who  may  be  presumed  to 
have  believed  him  when  he  related  his  experiences  in  the 
grotto,  Mohammedanism  owes  little  or  nothing  to  magic. 
Favoring  circumstances,  burning  zeal  and  good  politics 


234  MOHAMMEDAN   YOGA. 

acting  in  aid  of  the  sword  must  have  their  share  of  credit. 
Then  the  simplicity  of  the  new  religion  is  to  be  consid- 
ered. No  priest,  no  authority,  Allah,  Mohammed  and  the 
last  day  for  creed.  Circumcision  for  the  only  sacrament, 
five  easy  ablutions  and  as  many  short  prayers  daily  for 
ritual,  and  the  golden  rule  for  moral  law,  are  not  hard  to 
understand  nor  very  hard  to  conform  to.  Equally  sim- 
ple are  the  methods  of  punishment  and  reward ;  roasting 
forever  in  hell  or  living  forever  in  a  paradise  where 
crystal  fountains  are  eternal  in  play  and  bowers  of  roses 
eternal  in  bloom,  whereon  loll  and  languish  beautiful 
virgins  eternal  in  bud. 

Such  was  the  simple  cult  that  raised  to  whatever  ele- 
vation they  have  attained  a  race  of  low-minded,  drunken, 
licentious  and  cruel  robbers  and  murderers. 

Though  at  the  start  without  any  such  magical,  that  is, 
miraculous,  support  as  Christianity  had  in  the  works  of 
Jesus  and  his  disciples,  Mohammedanism  after  it  had 
taken  form  and  got  upon  its  legs  could  not  have  lacked 
such  attestations,  for  no  religion  has.  Among  a  body  of 
earnest  devotees,  such  as  newly  made  converts  ever  are, 
there  will  always  be  found  some  of  mediumistic  natures 
to  whom,  through  devotional  concentration,  devotional 
ecstasy  will  come,  either  as  the  "  inner  witness  "  of  in- 
tuition or  the  outer  one  of  visions  and  voices,  always 
testifying  according  to  the  preconceptions  of  receivers, 
to  keep  alive  the  lamp  of  faith  and  fire  of  zeal  in  them- 
selves and  kindle  them  in  others.  But  when  the  move- 
ment spread  to  more  enlightened  countries,  such  as 
Chaldea  and  Persia,  where  the  old  magic  of  Akkadia  had 
for  thousands  of  years  prevailed,  it  could  not  have  been 
long  in  drawing  to  its  support  yoga  adepts  of  superior 
sort,  able  to  exhibit  the  usual  signs  and  wonders  which 
are  supposed  to  infallibly  attest  religious  truth.  Such 
are  the  Sufis  and  others,  systematic  practicers  of  yoga 
under  true  yoga  conditions,  self-renouncing  ascetics,  as- 
sociated in  communities  each  of  which,  so  independent 


MOHAMMEDAN   YOGA.  235 

are  they  of  all  authority  in  respect  to  belief  or  discipline, 
constitutes  a  sect  by  itself,  while  most  of  them  must  be 
considered  as  quite  apart  from  the  Mohammedanism  the 
Prophet  taught.  These,  notwithstanding  their  heretical 
character,  hold  Islam  together  in  a  solidarity  such  as 
neither  the  Koran  nor  the  Sonna  could  be  deemed  ade- 
quate to  effect,  supplying  a  soul  to  the  body  which  the 
creed,  ritual  and  law  constitute.  In  their  teachings  are 
included  heresies  like  these:  There  is  one  truth  for  the 
wise  which  is  absolute,  and  another  for  the  ignorant 
which  is  relative — absolute  pantheism — direct  commun- 
ion with  heaven  obtainable  by  austerities — there  is  no 
free-will,  God  being  the  All-doer  as  well  as  the  All- 
mighty — the  stories  of  heaven  and  hell  are  mere  alle- 
gories— reason  only  leads  to  error;  intuition  alone  is 
infallible.  To  reconcile  such  doctrines  as  these  with 
the  Koran  its  obvious  sense  is  either  flatly  contradicted 
or  cruelly  wrenched;  and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  the  "officiants  and  savants"  of  Islamism,  as  a 
French  writer  says,  accuse  the  teachers  of  them  of  hete- 
rodoxy. Nevertheless,  the  religious  orders,  by  their  pure 
and  disinterested  lives,  have  won  and  largely  enjoy  the 
respect  and  attachment  of  the  people. 

Of  the  Sufis  M.  Lemairesse  says:  "The  mystic  Sufi 
becomes  absorbed  in  his  contemplation  and  love.  Four 
degrees  conduct  him  to  assimilation  with  God." 

"  The  first  is  humanity,  or  the  ordinary  life  of  man- 
kind, in  which  he  is  given  up  wholly  to  his  passions." 

"  The  second  degree,  or  the  path,  is  properly  the  doc- 
trinal initiation ;  the  initiate  who  comprehends  God  is 
released  from  devotional  observances." 

"  The  third  degree  is  knowledge." 

*'  The  trials  which  have  to  be  endured  in  attaining  to 
this  degree  are  so  severe  that  often  the  subject  succumbs; 
if  he  succeeds  in  overcoming  them,  he  becomes  the  equal 
of  the  angels,  his  spirit  comes  into  possession  of  the 
faculty  which  forms  its  essence,   intuition  of  the  true 


336  MOHAMMEDAN  YOGA. 

nature  of  beings,  perception  of  all  things  from  the  throne 
of  God  down  to  the  rain-drop." 

"  The  fourth  degree  is  beatitude,  and  is  obtained  by  a 
fast  nearly  absolute  of  forty  days;  after  it  the  disciple 
goes  into  the  desert  where  he  abstains  from  all  manual 
occupation  and  has  no  communication  with  any  one  but 
his  director.  The  ordeal  accomplished,  the  ascetic  par- 
ticipates in  the  divine  nature  and  has  the  power  to  work 
miracles." 

But  the  order  of  the  Kheloutya  make  the  progress  to- 
wards perfection  consist  of  seven  degrees  instead  of  four, 
which  are  as  follows: 

"  In  the  first  degree,  that  of  humanity,  he  perceives 
ten  thousand  lights,  dull  and  intermixed,  and  he  can  see 
genii." 

"  In  the  second,  that  of  passionate  ecstasy,  he  per- 
ceives, besides,  ten  thousand  blue  lights." 

"  The  third  degree  is  the  ecstasy  of  the  heart.  He 
sees  hell  and  its  attributes,  also  the  genii  and  all  theirs." 

"  The  fourth  degree  is  the  ecstasy  of  the  immaterial 
soul.  He  sees  ten  thousand  new  lights  of  bright  yellow; 
also  souls  of  prophets  and  saints." 

"  The  fifth  degree  is  the  mysterious  ecstasy.  Here 
he  sees  the  angels  and  ten  thousand  lights  more,  of  brill- 
iant white." 

"  In  the  sixth  degree,  that  of  the  ecstasy  of  obsession, 
he  sees  ten  thousand  other  lights,  as  of  a  limpid  mirror, 
feels  a  delicious  spiritual  ravishment,  and  beholds  the 
prophets." 

"At  length  he  arrives  at  the  seventh  degree,  that  of 
beatitude;  then  appear  ten  thousand  more  lights,  green 
and  white,  but  which  undergo  successive  transformations 
until  they  light  up  to  view  the  attributes  of  God  and  cer- 
tain words  of  the  Lord  recorded  in  the  Sonna  are  heard. 
He  seems  no  longer  to  belong  to  this  world,  all  terres- 
trial things  disappear." 

After  these  two  prominent  examples  of  Mohammedan 


MOHAMMEDAN   YOGA.  237 

Yoga  in  which  are  found:  contemplation;  absorption  in 
God  ;  release  from  devotional  observances  ;  intuitive 
knowledge  of  the  nature  of  all  beings;  bliss;  power  to 
work  miracles;  the  joytis  or  lights  in  connection  with 
the  five  tatwic  colors  (assuming  to  be  red  the  one  mis- 
taken for  hell-fire) ;  there  is  hardly  needed  to  completely 
prove  the  kinship  of  this  with  other  systems,  the  follow- 
ing incidents  and  requirements  gleaned  from  the  "  con- 
clusion "  written  at  the  end  of  his  translation  of  "the 
Rauzat — us — Safa,""  by  M.  Lemairesse  concerning  the 
religious  orders  of  Islam:  seclusion;  solitude;  silence; 
abstinence  ;  fasts  ;  vigils  ;  non-attachment  ;  renuncia- 
tion ;  poverty  ;  much  repetition  of  formulas,  especially 
of  the  sacred  word  Allah. 

Yoga  relates  to  the  entire  man,  therefore  its  literature 
cannot  ignore  his  love.  Thus,  having  passed  in  review 
the  Hindu  mudras  and  the  Chinese  story  of  Nii  Yii, 
we  now  come  to  what  the  great  Thaumaturge  Mahmed 
ben  Aissa  has  to  say  in  his  instructions  to  the  order  he 
founded  concerning  one  kind  of  love:  "Mysterious  or 
secret  love  consists  in  absorbing  one's  self  completely  in 
God.  When  he  has  arrived  at  communication  with  the 
interior  love  of  God,  duality  becomes  unity.  Luminous 
spirits  are  seen.  One  loses  the  sense  of  self  and  of  mod- 
esty; one  is  wholly  filled  with  the  breath  of  divinity." 
To  which  words  of  mystery  the  remark  of  the  translator, 
that  "probably  there  are  special  and,  above  all,  eccen- 
tric details  reserved  for  adepts  further  advanced  in  initia- 
tion," seem  quite  appropriate.  Thus,  after  the  proselyt- 
ing sword  of  Islam  had  swept  over  the  territory  where 
Akkadian  magic  aud  the  religion  allied  to  it  had  so  long 
flourished,  leveling  in  its  course  both  religion  and  magic, 
there  sprouted  from  the  stubble  a  new  form  of  magic,  to 
seize  upon  and  modify  the  new  religion  as  the  old  had 
the  old  ones;  a  new  form,  but  of  an  old  thing.  For 
Mohammedan  Yoga  is  yoga  still.  Just  how  far  associa- 
tion with  Mohammedanism  has  altered  its  appearance, 


238  MOHAMMEDAN  YOGA. 

how  far  a  more  modern  philosophy  has  re-formulated  it, 
how  far  experience  has  improved  its  methods,  how  far  it 
is  unitary  and  how  far  fragmentary,  we  are  hindered  from 
knowing  by  the  circumstances  that  the  religious  orders, 
for  their  protection  against  the  criticism  of  orthodoxy, 
are  become  secret  orders  as  well.  But  this  much  is  known, 
that,  profiting  by  the  large  freedom  within  the  fold  allowed 
to  his  flock  by  the  Prophet,  the  members  of  them  indulge 
in  a  variety  of  doctrine  and  practice  both  of  yoga  and 
religion  such  as  no  Christian  church  has  ever  tolerated 
within  its  pale — though  had  all  Christian  churches  done 
so  they  might  have  saved  themselves  a  deal  of  trouble 
and  the  world  a  deal  of  misery.  And  the  better  support 
afforded  to  Mohammedanism  by  its  contemplative  com- 
munities as  compared  with  that  which  Christianity  gets 
from  those  which  it  permits  but  severely  regulates,  testi- 
fies that  if  the  Church  had  allowed  more  freedom  it  would 
have  got  in  return  more  strength. 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

HEBREW    YOGA. 

According  to  the  history  of  the  Jews,  as  written  by 
themselves,  they  were  truly  a  peculiar  people,  and  their 
Jehovah  a  peculiar  god.  They  seem  to  have  never  tired 
of  sinning  in  his  sight  nor  he  of  punishing  them  for  it. 
Within  the  three  hundredyears  from  Joshua  to  Saul  he  had 
to  discipline  them  by  delivering  them  into  the  hands  of 
their  mutual  enemies,  to  endure  terms  of  slavery  varying 
from  eight  to  eighteen  years,  no  less  than  six  several 
times;  nor  in  all  these  centuries  is  any  one  good  action 
recorded  of  him.  His  terrible  judgments  were  almost 
exclusively  visited  on  offenders  against  himself,  or  if  he 
did  now  and  then  undertake  to  render  justice  between 
man  and  man,  it  was  the  wrong  man  that  got  punished. 
A  brutal  race  prone  to  carnage  and  destruction  he  was 
continually  commanding  to  kill  and  burn,  or  punishing 
for  slackness  in  doing  so.  And  the  wonder  is  equal  that 
of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  any  god  should  have  chosen 
such  a  people  for  his  own,  and  that  of  all  the  hosts  of 
heaven  any  people  should  have  chosen  such  a  god. 

To  understand  why  he  so  often  and  severely  punished 
them  for  "sinning  in  his  sight,"  it  must  be  considered 
that  the  sinning  in  question  consisted  in  worshiping 
other  gods,  which  in  turn  consisted  in  roasting  on  their 
altars  the  rams  and  bullocks  he  coveted  for  his  own,  and 
that  inasmuch  as  in  those  days  gods  needed  food  and 
drink  as  well  as  other  people,  service  of  god  meant  table- 
service,  and  the  worship  of  Baal  by  the  Jews  meant  the 
starvation  of  Jehovah.  The  cause  of  this  incorrigible 
disposition  to  backslide  evidently  was  that  the  worship 


240  HEBREW  YOGA. 

of  the  gods  of  the  surrounding  nations  was  more  attract- 
ive to  the  Jews  than  their  own.  All  those  nations  were 
the  disciples  of  the  Egyptians  and  Akkadians,  especially 
of  the  latter,  and  had  a  splendid  ritual  and  potent  theurgy 
that  irresistibly  allured  to  their  temples  the  ignorant, 
un&table  flock  whom  Moses  had  tried  to  indoctrinate  in 
his  newly  formulated  faith.  High  adept  as  he  was,  he 
could  not  control  them,  though  he  proved  his  ability  to 
prophesy  when,  just  before  he  died,  he  foretold  that  no 
one  else  would  ever  be  able  to  do  so. 

"And  there  arose  not  a  prophet  since  in  Israel  like 
unto  Moses,  whom  the  Lord  knew  face  to  face."  His 
successors,  the  judges,  enjoyed  no  such  advantage  as  he 
had  while  a  student  of  magic  under  the  learned  Egyp- 
tian priests.  The  judges  were  not  celibates,  nor  given 
to  contemplation.  What  mystical  faculty  they  had  must 
have  come,  as  modern  mediumship  does,  suddenly,  with- 
out discipline,  only  occasionally  amounting  to  "  open 
vision."  In  Samuel's  time  there  was  none  at  all;  "and 
the  word  of  the  Lord  was  precious  (rare)  in  those  days; 
there  was  no  open  vision. "  Down  to  the  time  of  Elijah  and 
Elisha  the  "signs"  they  exhibited  as  warrant  for  their 
claims  to  authority  were  few  and  insignificant.  Samuel 
relied  on  his  prediction  of  a  thunder  shower  to  attest  his. 
*'  So  Samuel  called  unto  the  Lord  and  the  Lord  sent  thun- 
der and  rain  that  day:  and  all  the  people  greatly  feared 
the  Lord  and  Samuel."  A  prophet  was  not  educated,  he 
was  "  raised  up,"  or,  "The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  came  upon 
him."  Like  a  nervous  disease,  the  faculty  of  foresight 
was  infectious :  "  And  when  they  saw  the  company  of  the 
prophets  prophesying,  and  Samuel  standing  as  appointed 
over  them,  the  Spirit  of  God  was  on  the  messengers  of 
Saul,  and  they  too  prophesied. "  Others  sent  were  seized 
by  the  same  spirit,  and  again  others,  and  finally  when  the 
King  went  himself,  he  was  attacked  by  it  so  strongly  that 
he  stripped  off  his  clothes  (as  insane  people  sometimes 
do)  and  prophesied  before  Samuel  in  like  manner,  "and 


HEBREW   YOGA.  241 

lay  down  naked  all  that  day  and  all  that  night."  But 
though  the  suddenness  of  their  developmentand  their  lim- 
ited powers  indicate  that  the  sages  raised  up  to  rule  and 
judge  Israel  during  the  centuries  of  theocratic  govern- 
ment were  not  advanced  beyond  a  very  rudimentary  stage, 
yet,  when  later,  with  the  establishment  of  monarchical 
government,  the  social  state  of  the  tribes  became  so 
far  ameliorated  as  to  permit  of  ascetic  seclusion  to  can- 
didates for  adeptship,  which  was  about  two  centuries 
after  Samuel,  prophets  of  a  very  high  order  appeared. 
The  first  was  Elijah  the  Thisbite,  "  a  hairy  man,  wearing 
a  girdle  of  leather  about  his  loins."  Confident  in  his 
power,  even  to  arrogance,  he  declared  to  King  Ahab :  "As 
the  Lord  God  of  Israel  liveth  before  whom  I  stand,  there 
shall  not  be  dew  nor  rain  these  years,  but  according  to 
my  word,"  Then,  going  into  hiding,  probably  to  avoid 
punishment  for  his  arrogance,  he  was  fed  by  ravens. 
Afterwards  to  repay  a  widow  for  her  hospitality  he  made 
her  scant  store  of  food  inexhaustible,  and  later  restored 
her  dead  son  to  life.  Next,  he  challenged  all  the  prophets, 
of  Baal  to  a  contest  of  magical  skill,  the  test  being  the 
calling  down  of  fire  from  heaven  to  consume  the  offer- 
ing on  the  altar,  and,  having  triumphed,  killed  them  one 
and  all.  King  Ahaziah  sent  a  captain  of  fifty  with  his 
fifty  to  summon  him  into  his  presence,  but  he  promptly- 
killed  them  with  fire  from  heaven ;  likewise  a  second  cap- 
tain with  his  fifty  sent  on  the  same  errand ;  and  a  third  de- 
tachment only  escaped  by  humble  supplication  for  mercy ; 
then  he  went  to  the  King  and  boldly  condemned  him  to 
death  for  having  sent  messengers  to  Baal-ze-bub,  the  God 
of  Ekron,  to  enquire  if  he  should  recover  his  health.  For 
his  latest  miracle  Elijah  smote  with  his  mantle  the  waters 
of  Jordan,  so  that  he  and  his  pupil  Elisha  crossed  over 
on  dry  land.  Finally,  and  after  imparting  to  Elisha  a 
double  portion  of  his  spirit,  he  stepped  into  a  chariot  of 
fire  with  horses  of  fire,  and  was  carried  up  by  a  whirlwmd 
into  Heaven. 


243  HEBREW   YOGA. 

Elisha,  taking  up  the  mantle  that  fell  from  his  master 
as  he  ascended,  begun  the  exercise  of  magical  power  now 
first  developed  in  him  after  some  ten  years  of  teaching, 
by  performing  with  it  a  like  miraculous  parting  of  waters. 
After  which  his  miracles  were  the  following: — He  puri- 
fied poisonous  waters — called  out  of  the  woods  two  bears 
to  kill  forty-two  children  for  jeering  at  his  tonsure — 
after  refreshing  his  power  by  listening  to  music,  made  a 
valley-full  of  water  issue  from  the  earth — from  a  single 
pot  of  oil  filled  an  indefinite  number  of  others — gave  a 
son  to  a  woman  having  an  aged  husband — restored  that 
son  to  life  when  completely  dead — made  healthy  food  of 
a  pottage  of  poisonous  herbs — with  twenty  loaves  of  bar- 
ley and  full  ears  of  corn  fed  an  hundred  men — healed  one 
leper  and  made  another — caused  an  axe  of  iron  to  float 
in  water — informed  his  King  that  his  enemy  the  King  of 
Syria  was  plotting  against  him  in  the  privacy  of  his  far- 
distant  chamber — called  to  his  aid  against  a  host  sent  to 
capture  him  a  mountainful  of  chariots  and  horses  of  fire — 
smote  the  same  host  with  blindness — And  even  after  his 
death  his  bones  restored  to  life  another  dead  man  who 
was  touched  by  them. 

Here  were  adepts  indeed  !  and  such  as  are  not  made 
in  a  day.  Assuming  to  be  true  the  accounts  given  of 
them  by  historians  who  stood  in  the  same  relation  to 
them  and  their  works  that  the  four  evangelists  did  to 
Jesus  and  his,  both  Elijah  and  Elisha,  though  bad  enough 
to  be  fit  intermediaries  between  the  Jews  of  those  days 
and  their  God,  were  as  great  prophets  as  any  that  are 
named  in  Jewish  or  Christian  records,  not  excepting  even 
Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Both  of  them  healed  the  sick,  raised 
the  dead,  caused  scanty  portions  of  food  to  fill  many 
mouths  and  made  the  waters  obey  them;  while  either 
one  or  the  other  of  them  (or  both)  could  call  down  from 
heaven  fire  or  water  at  discretion,  or  blight  the  earth 
with  drought  terminable  only  at  his  will — could  render 
poisoned   pottage   safe    to    eat    and    poisoned    springs 


HEBREW  YOGA.  243 

safe  to  drink  from,  fill  with  water  dry  ditches,  compel 
wild  birds  to  bring  him  food  or  wild  beasts  to  execute 
his  vengeance,  confer  offspring  upon  senile  impotence,  or 
hear  words  privately  spoken  in  a  distant  city.  What 
their  methods  were  for  attaining  to  such  power  no  record 
tells,  but  Akkadian  magic  was  practiced  in  all  the  coun- 
tries around  them,  and  we  may  be  sure  that  the  Jews 
received  and  practiced  it  as  early  as  they  became  civilized 
enough  to  do  so.  As  no  prophets  came  after  the  above 
two  that  could  be  said  to  excel  them,  none  others  need 
be  noticed  until  we  come  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth. 

The  historical  portions  of  the  Old  Testament,  allowance 
being  made  for  a  patriotic  disposition  on  the  part  of  the 
writers  of  it  to  magnify  the  exploits  of  the  Jewish  armies, 
especially  in  relation  to  the  numbers  of  their  enemies 
killed  in  battle  or  slaughtered  afterwards,  may  be  taken 
to  be  reasonably  well  founded  in  fact.  The  narrative  of 
the  earlier  books  was  written  by  men  too  ignorant  to 
plagiarize  and  too  unimaginative  to  invent,  and  in  a  simple 
truth-like  style.  Down  to  the  time  of  the  Kings  the  state- 
ments of  so-called  supernatural  occurrences  are  so  mod- 
erate as  to  be  matched  and  more  than  matched  by  the 
accounts  now  current  and  largely  credited  of  like  occur- 
rences in  our  own  day.  This  being  so  in  the  earlier  parts, 
where  error  and  falsity  would  be  most  apt  to  get  in,  the 
presumption  in  favor  of  the  later  ones  is  thereby  strength- 
ened. Except  that  Moses  was  believed  to  have  spoken 
with  Jehovah  face  to  face,  and  that  Elijah  claimed  to 
"stand  before"  him,  the  modes  of  revelation  by  which 
the  Jews  supposed  the  word  of  God  was  conveyed  to 
them  were  of  no  higher  order  than  our  modern  spiritual 
communications.  They  consisted  in  dreams,  visions, 
trance  speaking,  speaking  by  impression,  automatic  writ- 
ing, direct  writing,  clairvoyance,  clairaudience,  draw- 
ing lots,  and  the  temple  oracle,  supposed  to  have  been 


244  HEBREW  YOGA. 

chrystal-seeing.  The  Hebrew  bible  does  not  claim  to  be 
the  word  of  God  in  any  other  sense  than  as  recording 
these.  It  should  be  judged  by  its  own  claim  rather  than 
those  set  up  for  it  by  a  Christian  council,  and  thus  judged 
must  be  decided  to  be  a  reasonably  credible  history,  as 
sacred  histories  go. 

But  for  many  reasons  no  such  credit  can  be  accorded 
to  the  New  Testament,  which  is  obviously  so  distorted 
and  encumbered  by  priestly  and  controversial  tampering, 
to  say  nothing  of  the  honest  errors  of  ignorance,  that  in 
general  it  would  not  be  worth  one's  while  to  attempt  to 
straighten  out  or  disencumber  it ;  certainly  not  worth  the 
while  of  one  able  to  see  that  it  may  be  admitted  to  be 
true  in  every  part  without  at  all  proving  any  one  of  the 
hundreds  of  creeds,  heretical  or  orthodox,  that  men  have 
attempted  to  build  upon  it — because  able  to  see  nothing 
more  in  it  than  the  story  of  a  great  yogi  who  some  nine- 
teen hundred  years  ago  in  Palestine  "went  about  doing 
good."  Yet  it  is  well  at  the  outset  of  our  enquiry  to  get 
rid  of  the  objection  often  made,  that  since  the  silence  of 
contemporaneous  history  concerning  Herod's  massacre  of 
the  innocents  and  the  prodigies  connected  with  the  birth 
and  death  of  Jesus,  all  claimed  to  have  happened  in  times 
when  every  important  event  was  carefully  verified,  re- 
ported and  put  on  record  by  the  Roman  officials,  dis- 
proves the  accounts  of  them  contained  in  the  gospels, 
that  silence,  therefore,  disproves  the  gospels  themselves, 
with  their  whole  content.  But  there  is  no  vital  connec- 
tion between  the  statements  in  question  and  the  rest  of 
the  story,  from  which  they  may  easily  be  detached.  The 
fable  of  the  massacre  may  be  dismissed  as  an  old  one, 
told  once  against  Nimrod  and  again  against  Pharaoh,  be- 
sides others;  while  as  to  the  prodigies,  is  it  not  known 
that  down  to  the  times  in  question  it  was  usual  to  put 
them  in  as  preface  and  appendix  to  biographies  of  great 
religious  leaders,  to  give  to  one  of  whom  a  celestial  phe- 
nomenon for  a  harbinger  and  an  earthquake  for  a  funeral 


HEBREW  YOGA.  245 

was  nothing  more  than  historical  courtesy  required  ? 
Even  distinguished  civil  rulers  were  often  complimented 
in  the  same  way — Julius  Ccesar,  for  instance,  and  the 
Emperors  Augustus,  Claudius,  Nero  and  Vespasian. 

But  there  are  in  the  gospels  two  statements,  specific- 
ally affirmed  and  insisted  on,  relating  to  the  advent  and 
departure  of  their  subject,  that,  if  true,  make  him  a  god 
and  not  a  yogi.  And  these  are  not  to  be  summarily  dis- 
posed of,  for  both  have  a  plausible  groundwork  in  mag- 
ical and,  therefore,  natural  phenomena.  The  one  relates 
to  the  divine  paternity,  and  the  other  to  the  resurrec- 
tion, neither  of  which,  I  think,  has  a  counterpart  in  any 
other  religion,  for  though  pagan  gods  habitually  become 
fathers  of  men,  they  never  incarnated  in  their  sons,  and 
though  they  habitually  dwelt  in  heaven,  none  of  them 
had  to  die  on  earth  in  order  to  get  there.  But  the  phe- 
nomena in  question  will  account  for  both  the  older  and 
simpler  interpretation  and  the  newer  and  more  complex 
one,  while  their  true  meaning  will  be  found,  at  the  least, 
as  momentous  as  either.  A  resurrection  of  the  body  is 
something  capable  of  proof  or  disproof;  not  so  a  divine 
paternity  or  incarnation  of  god  or  man.  But  there  are 
facts  in  nature  which  account  for  the  beliefs  which  have 
obtained  in  all  of  these,  and  so  deprive  them  of  any 
power  to  prove  themselves  true  by  the  mere  fact  of  their 
having  got  into  men's  minds. 

In  his  "Philosophy  of  Mysticism,"  Baron  Du  Prel 
treats  of  a  "curative  instinct  of  nature,"  which  continu- 
ally acts  by  the  various  modes  of  communication  possible 
between  the  occult  and  the  manifest  self  of  man,  to  influ- 
ence the  latter  for  its  own  preservation,  which  modes  are 
many  and  various,  ranging  from  vague  impressions  of  im- 
pending evil  and  the  cravings  of  pregnancy  up  to  objecti- 
fied visions  of  celestial  messengers,  warning  against  dis- 
aster, and  are  adapted  to  the  receptivities  of  those  sought 
to  be  influenced  by  them.  Now,  the  sexual  faculty  lies 
quite  within  the  sphere  of  this  curative  instinct;  in  fact, 


246  HEBREW  YOGA. 

according  to  Hindu  science,  the  organs  of  that  faculty  are 
the  seat  of  all  occult  power,  the  power  that  operates  the 
signals.  When  an  ascetic  devotee  in  his  cave  or  cell 
has  by  those  very  pious  concentrations  practiced  to  keep 
down  desire,  roused  it  up,  and  the  vision  of  a  beautiful 
woman  arises,  whom  he  takes  for  the  devil  and  commands 
to  avaunt,  maybe  it  is  not  the  devil  at  all  that  is  tempt- 
ing him,  but  his  own  soul,  that  he  is  wearing  out  his 
miserable  body  in  efforts  to  save,  that  is  trying  to  tell 
him  what  would  be  good  to  take  to  preserve  that  body, 
A  relieving  orgasm  is  commonly  brought  on  by  a  dream, 
as  is  well  known,  but  it  is  claimed  that  sometimes, 
dreams  failing,  Nature,  who,  as  Schopenhauer  says,  will 
not  be  frustrated  if  she  can  help  it,  goes  so  far  as  to  call 
up,  or  project  rather,  an  apparition  that  is  present  to  the 
waking  eye,  or  to  both  sight  and  touch,  or  to  touch  with- 
out sight,  or  to  all  the  senses.  Here  are  suggested  the 
old  persistent  tales  of  incubi  and  succubi,  of  Count  Galbas 
and  his  sub-mundanes,  and  stories  whispered  of  experi- 
ences now  going  on  in  this  country,  some  of  which  it  is 
even  asserted  have  tested  and  proved  the  possibility  of 
bodily  touch  projected  from  a  distant  body,  of  a  kind 
that  suggests  Jupiter's  visits  to  Psyche.  According  to 
Swami  Swatmaram,  a  man  who  has  become  proficient  in 
the  difficult  Vagroli  Mudra  has  power  to  attract  to  him- 
self "the  damsels  of  the  Siddhas;"  and  a  woman  prop- 
erly developed  by  intercourse  with  him  becomes  a  yogini, 
and  among  other  miraculous  gifts  has  that  of  being  able 
to  "go  through  the  air"  to  somebody,  just  as  at  the  call 
of  Krishna  from  the  woods  those  of  his  12,000  milkmaid 
wives,  whose  earthly  husbands  held  them  back,  sent  their 
souls,  and  got  to  the  god  before  those  others  could  who 
went  on  foot.  We  have  seen  that  one  of  the  Mohamme- 
dan religious  orders  has  a  book  of  instructions  in  which 
"mysterious  or  secret  love"  is  mentioned  as  belonging 
to  a  very  advanced  state  of  ecstasy  wherein  "  spirits  of 
light  appear,"  and  one  loses  the  feeling  of  self  and  of 


HEBREW  YOGA.  247 

modesty;"  '*  one  is  filled  with  the  breath  of  God."  Saint 
John  of  the  Cross,  the  Christian  ascetic,  has  left  behind 
him  some  verses  describing  the  loves  of  the  soul  and  its 
bridegroom  Jesus,  of  which  a  few  here  quoted  will  show 
the  tendency  of  one  kind  of  love  to  run  into  another, 
under  certain  conditions: 

"  In  the  dark  night, 

"  With  anxious  love  inflamed, 

"  O,  happy  lot! 

"  Forth,  unobserved  I  went, 

"  My  house  being  now  at  rest. 

"  In  darkness  and  in  safety, 

"  By  the  secret  ladder,  disguised, 

"  O,  happy  lot! 

"  In  darkness  and  concealment, 

"  My  house  being  now  at  rest. 

***** 

' '  There  he  gave  me  his  breasts, 

"There  he  taught  me  the  science  full  of  sweetness, 

"And  there  I  gave  to  him, 

"  Myself  without  reserve, 

"  There  I  promised  to  be  his  bride." 

But  inasmuch  as  a  truly  virtuous  woman  would  never, 
dreaming  or  awake,  receive  another  than  her  husband, 
to  obtain  access  to  such  an  one  a  god  must  come,  or  seem 
to  come,  and  thus  a  belief  that  the  visitor  is  a  divine  one 
arises  from  the  nature  of  the  case;  how  from  a  mere  ob- 
jectified illusion  so  substantial  a  thing  as  a  male  child 
could  result  is  another  question.  We  know  that  by  manual 
operation  the  human  germ  has  been  deposited  in  the 
matrix  and  there  fecundated.  Many  careful  observers 
of  our  spiritual  phenomena  believe  that  far  more  bulky 
and  ponderable  objects  than  that  germ  can  be  by  some 
occult  means  moved  from  place  to  place,  passing  through 
material  obstructions  on  the  way,  or  materialize  on  the 
spot.  Perhaps  the  most  reasonable  hypothesis  yet  sug- 
gested to  account  for  such  phenomena  is  that  the  sub- 
conscious self  of  some  living  person  present  is  the  agent. 


248  HEBREW  YOGA. 

If  SO,  then  in  every  such  case  of  love-making  by  an 
objectified  illusion,  there  being  neither  a  real  man  nor  a 
real  god  present,  the  agent  is  presumably  the  sub-conscious 
woman,  and  the  phenomenon  may  properly  be  termed 
self-visitation,  to  which  the  next  step  could  only  be  self- 
impregnation.  Such  are  the  suppositions  which,  if  well 
founded,  reduce  an  immaculate  conception  to  the  rank 
of  an  orderly  creative  process.  Moreover,  there  were 
afloat  in  those  times  traditional  beliefs  of  magical  impreg- 
nation. The  divine  infant  of  which  the  Finnic  virgin 
Mariatta  was  the  mother  and  a  wild  strawberry  the  pu- 
tative father  was,  according  to  the  Kalevala,  at  first  re- 
fused baptism  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  child  of  witch- 
craft. The  same  scripture  also  records  another  miraculous 
conception  and  birth  in  these  words: 

"  Time  had  gone  but  little  distance 
"  Ere  a  boy  was  born  in  magic 
"Of  the  virgin,  Untamala." 

***** 

"  Then  they  laid  the  child  of  wonder, 
"  Fatherless,  the  magic  infant, 
"  In  the  cradle  of  attention." 

And  as  late  as  the  time  of  Jacob  Boehme  that  visionary 
in  his  treatise  on  "The  Way  to  Christ,"  wrote  that  God's 
first  intent  when  he  created  Adam  was  that  he  should  be 
self-impregnating,  and  therefore  he  was  made  bi-sexual, 
but  that  even  before  he  was  tested  by  temptation,  hap- 
pening to  foresee  that  he  never  could  stand  it,  he  gave 
him  a  wife,  "  For  God  saw  that  Adam  could  not  then 
generate  magically." 

Certainly  something  must  have  been  going  on  in  the 
world  to  give  rise  to  the  many  stories  we  have  both  of 
magical  begettings  and  of  matrons  and  virgins  giving 
birth  to  sons  of  gods.  Such  are  to  be  found  in  probably 
every  book  of  scripture  of  whatever  religion  has  owned 
one.  Self-visitation  and  impregnation,  if  they  can  be 
supposed   to   be   possible,  would  account  for   them    all. 


HEBREW  YOGA.  249 

The  woman,  for  reasons  just  given,  would  in  each  case 
feel  sure  it  was  none  other  than  a  god  that  came  to  her, 
while  others,  if  satisfied  there  was  no  access  of  any  man 
could  hardly  help  agreeing  with  her.  But  it  is  not  vital 
to  any  thesis  of  this  writing  that  the  above  theory  should 
be  established,  and  it  is  only  advanced  to  show  that  cer- 
tain beliefs  are  not  without  supporting  facts,  and  as  a  help 
to  thinkers  disposed  to  inquire  into  the  meaning  of  the 
facts. 

The  story  of  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus,  so  much  relied 
on  by  believers  as  proving  their  religion  and  by  disbe- 
lievers as,  by  its  absurdity,  disproving  it,  had  it  been 
told  in  India  would  have  caused  little  astonishment  and 
no  skepticism,  so  used  to  such  things  are  they  there. 
Says  Swatmaram:  "Siva,  Matsyendra,  Sabara,  Ananda, 
Bhairava,  Chourangi,  Meena,  Goraksha,  Virupaksha, 
Bilesa,  Manthana,  Bhairava,  Siddhi,  Buddha,  Kanthadi, 
Korantaka,  Surananda  Siddhapada,  Charpati,  Kaneri, 
Pujyapada,  Nityanatha,  Niranjana,  Kapalika,  Bindu- 
natha,  Kaka,Chandeeswara,  Allabha,  Prabhudeva,Ghoda, 
Chodi,  Sentmi,  Bhanuki,  Naradeva,  Khanda,  Kapalki, 
and  many  other  great  Siddhas,  having  conquered  time, 
move  about  the  world."  They  had  by  pushing  yoga  prac- 
tice to  the  end  made  themselves  perfect  yogis,  and  thus 
identified  with  Brahman,  but  had  not  as  yet  departed  this 
life.  In  Hindu  belief  such  beings  can  postpone  their  de- 
parture as  long  as  they  will,  and  sometimes  do  so  for 
thousands  of  years,  meanwhile  "  moving  about  the  world." 
Such,  too,  was  the  belief  of  the  Taoists  of  ancient  China. 
Chuang-Tzu  declared  that  when  he  wrote  he  was  twelve 
hundred  years  old,  nothing  was  known  of  Lao-Tsee's 
dying  at  all ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  recorded  that  when  last 
seen  he  was  traveling  westward  just  as  Finnic  Wainamoi- 
nen  and  Schlatter,  the  wonderful  American  healer,  did 
when  they  too  disappeared.  The  Finnic  Christ  disap- 
peared when  he  was  but  an  infant.  Pythagoras  was  by 
some  of  his  disciples  believed  to  have  not  perished  in  the 


250  HEBREW  YOGA. 

burning  house,  but  to  have  merely  passed  out  of  sight. 
Romulus  also  was  by  the  Romans  thought  to  have  disap- 
peared without  dying.  Longfellow's  "Hiawatha"  re- 
cords a  belief  held  by  the  North  American  Indians  that 
their  great  prophets  did  so  too.  The  epic  "  Kalevala  " 
contains  the  following  description  of  sailing  away  of  the 
great  magician  Wainamoinen  from  his  Finland  home: 

"  Sang  his  farewell  song  to  Northland, 

"  To  the  people  of  Wainola, 

*'  Sang  himself  a  boat  of  copper, 

"  Beautiful  his  bark  of  Magic  ; 

"  At  the  helm  sat  the  magician, 

"  Sat  the  ancient  wisdom-singer. 

"  "Westward,  westward  sailed  the  hero. 

"  Thus  the  ancient  Wainamoinen, 

*'  In  his  copper-banded  vessel, 

"  Left  his  tribe  in  Kalevala, 

"  Sailing  o'er  the  rolling  billows, 

*'  Sailing  through  the  azure  vapors, 

"  Sailing  through  the  dusk  of  evening, 

"Sailing  to  the  fiery  sunset, 

"  To  the  higher  landed  regions, 

"  To  the  lower  verge  of  heaven, 

"  Quickly  gained  the  far  horizon, 

"Gained  the  purple  colored  harbor, 

"  There  his  bark  he  firmly  anchored, 

"  Rested  in  his  bark  of  copper; 

"  But  he  left  his  harp  of  magic, 

"  Left  his  songs  and  wisdom-sayings, 

"  To  the  lasting  joy  of  Suomi." 

The  poem  also  hints  at  the  possibility  of  the  subse- 
quent return  of  the  departing  sage: 

"  That  I  may  bring  back  the  Sampo, 
"  Bring  anew  the  harp  of  joyance, 
"  Bring  again,  the  golden  moonlight, 
"  Bring  again  the  silver  sunshine, 
"  Peace  and  plenty  to  the  Northland." 

Concerning  the  anomalous  state  of  being  of  such  de- 
partants  Chuang-Tzu  gives  a  hint  of  the  old  Chinese  doc- 


HEBREW   YOGA.  251 

trine,  when  he  says  that  one  who  has  attained  to  Tao  is 
"fit  for  translation." 

The  Hebrew  Bible  says:  "  And  Enoch  lived  sixty  and 
five  years,  and  begat  Methuselah:  and  Enoch  walked 
with  God  after  he  begat  Methuselah  three  hundred  years, 
and  begat  sons  and  daughters;  and  all  the  days  of  Enoch 
were  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  years;  and  Enoch 
walked  with  God:  and  he  was  not;  for  God  took  him." 
Which  seems  plainly  enough  to  mean  that  he  was  a  yogi 
who  after  attaining  to  junction  with  God  lived  in  the 
world  for  three  hundred  years  more  and  then  disappeared. 
The  Mohammedan  Rauzat-Us-Safa  describes  Enoch  as 
being  constantly  engaged  in  meditation  and  prayer,  and 
states  that  when  he  was  eighty-two  years  old  he  managed 
to  get  into  Paradise  and  once  there  refused  to  leave  it. 
It  is  noteworthy  in  this  connection  that  although  every 
other  antediluvian  from  Adam  to  Noah  (except  Lamech, 
who  lived  to  seven  hundred  and  seventy)  was  allowed 
more  than  nine  hundred  years  of  life,  this  companion  of 
God  and  the  only  perfected  saint  of  them  all  was  given 
only  three  hundred  and  sixty-five.  Why  was  his  stay  on 
earth  thus  cut  short  unless  that  he  might  be  advanced  to 
a  better  state?  It  is  also  noteworthy  that  during  the 
last  three  hundred  years  of  his  earthly  activity  he  was  in 
two  states  of  being  at  once,  walking  with  God  in  the  one 
and  raising  a  family  in  the  other.  These  years  of  earthly 
activity  may  be  considered  as  a  continuing  return. 

The  Mohammedans  also  say  that  Enoch  returned  to 
earth  as  Elijah  and  the  Christians  say  that  Elijah  re- 
turned to  be  present  at  the  Transfiguration,  where  he  and 
Moses  were  seen  talking  with  Jesus.  Was  Moses  then 
still  alive,  having  disappeared,  not  died?  It  is  true  that 
in  Deuteronomy  it  is  said  that  he  died,  but  that  was  the 
only  account  of  his  disappearance  that  in  those  times 
the  ignorant  Jews  could  understand;  and  some  account 
must  be  given  them.  But  the  next  two  verses  read  thus : 
"And  he  buried  him  in  a  valley  in  the   land  of  Moab, 


252  HEBREW  YOGA. 

over  against  Bethlehem,  but  no  man  knoweth  of  his 
sepulchre  unto  this  day.  And  Moses  was  an  hundred 
and  twenty  years  old  when  he  died:  his  eye  was  not  dim, 
nor  his  natural  force  abated."  Now  that  a  man  should 
bury  his  own  dead  body  is  inconceivable;  so  it  is  that 
one  in  the  prime  of  life  should  go  and  hide  himself  away, 
to  die  in  some  place  that  would  serve  as  a  tomb.  But 
that  a  perfected  yogi,  one  "fit  for  translation"  as  we 
are  quite  at  liberty  to  believe  Moses  was,  healthy  and 
strong,  as  such  are  able  by  their  art  always  to  keep 
themselves,  and  by  the  same  art  able  at  will  to  disappear 
from  view  or  "  move  about  the  world ;"  also  able  to  fore- 
know the  dismal  life  before  him  if  he  continued  his 
hitherto  unavailing  efforts  to  make  a  decent  people  out  of 
the  brutal  tribes  he  had  so  long  "  carried  in  his  bosom," 
as  shown  by  the  prophecy  of  their  future  ill-doings  which 
he  delivered  to  them  as  a  farewell  address— that  such  an 
one  should  have  at  last  got  tired  and  disgusted  and  se- 
cretly and  quietly  abandoned  them  to  their  wretched  fate, 
is  quite  conceivable.  Supposing  it  to  have  been  so,  there 
were  present  at  that  Transfiguration  the  only  two  persons 
mentioned  in  Jewish  scripture  as  having,  without  under- 
going death,  disappeared  from  life  and  subsequently 
returned,  not  as  re-incarnated  souls  of  the  dead,  but  as 
the  original  men.     Was  yet  a  third  one  there  present? 

What  is  the  mode  of  being  of  such  after  disappear- 
ance, what  their  place,  state  and  activity,  has  been  much 
speculated  upon  but  never  determined,  yet  this  much  is 
certain  and  could  be  proved  by  many  other  citations 
than  the  above,  a  belief  has  always  existed  that  the  per- 
fected magical  adept  has  the  power  to  take  his  own  time 
for  dying,  and  meanwhile  can  come  and  go  in  the  earth 
at  will. 

The  different  and  conflicting  accounts  we  have  of  the 
crucifixion  qf  Jesus  leave  it  quite  open  to  belief  that  he 
was  not  dead  when  taken  down  from  the  cross.  The 
time  required  to  kill  a  man  by  crucifixion  was,  according 


HEBREW   YOGA.  253 

to  M.  Paul  de  Regla,  often  as  much  as  three  days,  rarely- 
less  than  two.  But  owing  to  the  nearness  of  the  Sab- 
bath Jesus  was  allowed  to  hang  only  three  hours,  and 
that  without  receiving  any  mortal  hurt.  The  same 
writer  says  that  in  practice  the  feet  were  not  nailed, 
that  they  sometimes  touched  the  ground,  being  merely 
tied  to  the  tree  by  the  ankles,  and  that  a  projecting 
block  of  wood  served  as  a  sort  of  saddle  on  which  the 
most  of  the  sufferer's  weight  might  rest.  Jesus  escaped 
the  coup  de  grace,  which  consisted  in  breaking  the  limbs, 
by  appearing  to  be  dead,  though  the  lance-thrust  proved 
the  contrary,  for  it  drew  blood,  and  blood  cannot  flow 
from  a  corpse.  The  appearance  of  death  may  perfectly 
well  have  been  from  a  trance,  induced  by  the  very  in- 
tensity of  the  pain  suffered,  such  as  has  often  happened 
to  those  habituated  to  trance,  as  all  yogis  are.  Thus  it 
was  by  some  power  so  ordered  that  the  crucifixion  should 
not  kill  Jesus  of  Nazareth — might  it  not  have  been  his 
own  magical  power  ?  He  was  certainly  magician  enough 
for  that,  and  also  to  close  the  eyes  of  the  keepers,  walk 
forth  from  the  sepulchre  at  the  proper  time,  and  give 
the  women  the  vision  of  the  angels.  All  this  would  have 
been  quite  consistent  with  his  going  voluntarily  to  his 
trial  and  execution. 

If,  on  the  above  grounds,  the  gospel  story  can  be  con- 
sidered as  rid  of  hindrances  to  belief  that  have  been 
considered  valid  because  not  understood,  there  remains 
a  story  that,  whether  true  or  false,  carries  no  falsity  on 
its  face — of  a  great  magician  and  good  man,  exhibiting 
only  fallible  wisdom,  and  no  powers  higher  than  Elijah 
and  Elisha  manifested  when  they  went  about  doing  evil. 
I  think  the  foregoing  shows  that  the  story  of  the  resur- 
rection is  not  absurd  enough  to  prove  the  four  gospels 
untrue,  nor  yet  wonderful  enough  to  prove  them  true. 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

YOGA    OF    THE    ESSENES. 

Some  two  or  more  centuries  B.  C.  a  fanatical  order  of 
ascetic  Jews  established  themselves  near  the  western 
borders  of  the  Dead  Sea.  They  were  communists,  celi- 
bates, diligent  in  work  and  devotion,  cultivated  quietude 
of  body  and  mind  and  an  humble  deportment,  wearing 
their  garments  to  rags,  though  practicing  frequent  ablu- 
tions, dressed  in  white  and  wore  long  hair,  recruited 
their  numbers  by  adopting  young  children  and  also  ad- 
mitting adults  tired  of  the  world,  and  wandering  much 
from  city  to  city,  but  never  begging.  A  few  of  the  more 
intelligent  among  them,  by  retreat  and  contemplation, 
became  adepts,  and  ruled  the  others  with  great  rigor, 
giving  forth  to  them  teachings  of  an  exoteric  kind,  while 
reserving  to  themselves  an  esoteric  freedom  of  thought 
and  inspiration.  These  devoted  themselves  largely  to 
science  and  philosophy,  and  many  of  them  became 
healers  as  well  as  prophets.  Whatever  the  magical 
attainments  of  the  Essenes  were,  they  gave  proof,  when 
subjected  to  martyrdom,  of  having  acquired  the  philo- 
sophical equanimity  in  its  highest  degree,  their  insen- 
sibility to,  or  disregard  of  pain  being  such  that  they 
could  smile  while  undergoing  the  most  terrible  torture, 
chat  pleasantly  with  their  executioners,  and  die  joyfully. 
The  Therapeuts  of  Egypt  were  very  much  like  the  Es- 
senes, and  the  two  sects  are  often  confounded  with  one 
another  in  the  scant  historical  accounts  we  have  of  them. 
Some  of  the  Essenes  were  severely  ascetic,  and  took  the 
name  of  Nazarenes. 

Robert  Taylor,  in  his  Diegesis,  as  well  as  many  other 


YOGA    OF  THE  ESSENES.  255 

writers,  have  held  the  theory  that  Jesus  was  an  Essene, 
but  against  this  several  objections  arise.  He  always 
talked  and  acted  as  a  free  man,  owing  accountability  to 
no  authority,  whereas  the  Essenes  were  strictly  disci- 
plined and  held  under  slavish  control  by  their  superiors. 
When  arrested  and  tried,  not  one  friend  appeared  in  his 
behalf,  whereas  the  Essenes  were  a  large  and  powerful 
sect  and  corporation,  more  numerous,  says  M,  De  Regla, 
than  the  Sadducees,  and  would  hardly  have  let  an  im- 
portant confrere  be  the  victim  of  a  farcical  trial,  wanton 
ignominy  and  cruel  death.  They  were  not  mendicants, 
but  diligent  producers  and  owners  of  property,  and  in 
each  city  one  of  their  number  was  ready  to  supply  the 
wants  of  travelling  members;  but  no  mention  is  made  of 
the  wandering  Nazarene  having  had  any  such  recourse. 
The  Essenes  were  bigoted  Sabbath-keepers;  he  was  a 
daring  Sabbath-breaker,  Finally,  no  mention  of  the  Es- 
senes is  made  in  any  of  the  gospels  in  which  accounts  of 
the  Pharisees  and  Sadducees  so  abound. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE  ROMAN  STOICS  AS  YOGIS. 

When  the  Roman  people  had  reached  that  stage  of  de- 
velopment in  which  a  craving  for  philosophy  is  felt  and 
religion  loses  its  hold  on  instructed  men,   there   arose 
the  sect  of  Stoics,  which,  reacting  to  the  rude  and  stir- 
ring conditions    that    still   prevailed,   became  in   many- 
respects  different  from  any  other,  both  as  to  doctrine 
and  conduct.     The  Stoics  were  not  true,  contemplative 
yogis;  they  were  too  busy  with  the  active  affairs  of  life 
for  that,  yet  in  their  lives  and  teachings  they  showed  that 
Akkadian  magic  and  its  accompanying  philosophy  had  not 
in  its  westward  extension  stopped  at  the  eastern  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean.   They  believed  in  an  universal  soul, 
of  which  all  individual  ones  are  but  manifestations,  and 
into  which  they  are  destined  to  be  finally  absorbed.    They 
believed  in  the  persistence  of  life  after  death,  and  that 
death  only  restores  man  to  the  state  he  held  before  birth, 
though  on  both  these  points  their  opinions  varied  and 
altered,  as  needs  must  be  when  the  mind  reaches  out 
towards  the  unknowable.   They  held  the  things  and  affairs 
of  human  life  in  contempt,  and  if  using  or  enjoying  them 
disregarded  them,  which  is  no  other  than  the  renuncia- 
tion and  non-attachment  of  the  Hindus.     They  had  no 
personal  god,  no  future  rewards  or  punishments,  hence 
no  fear  of  death.      "  Where  we  are,"  said  they,  "  death  is 
not;  where  death  is,  we  are  not.     It  is  the  last  best  boon 
of  nature,  for  it  frees  man  from  all  his  cares.     It  is  at 
worst  the  close  of  a  banquet  we  have  enjoyed."     Like 
the  Chinese  sages,  they  confided  in  the  natural  goodness 
of  the  heart  of  man,  and  like  the  Hindu  sages,  in  the  un- 


THE  ROMAN  STOICS  AS  YOGIS.  257 

tarnishable  nature  of  his  soul.  They  declared  that  man 
was  perfectible,  and  that  the  perfected  man  was  a  divine 
man  and  the  equal  of  God.  They  called  themselves 
sages,  and  as  such  claimed  to  have  attained  to  an  im- 
passive tranquillity,  or  fixed  state  of  philosophical  indif- 
ference, such  as  all  systems  of  yoga  require  and  the 
Eskimos  constitutionally  possess,  and  pervaded  by  which 
Antoninus  Pius,  who  was  one  of  them,  on  the  last  night 
of  his  life  gave  from  his  deathbed  for  password  of  the 
sentries  "equanimity." 

Roman  Stoicism  was  the  salt  that  savored  the  Roman 
Republic,  and  under  the  empire  resisted  and  tempered 
the  tyranny  of  the  rulers  and  vices  of  the  people  until 
it  was  overshadowed,  or,  rather,  outshone,  by  mystical 
Neoplatonism  and  early  Christian  mysticism,  and  in  them 
sunk  and  lost  to  historic  view. 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

CHRISTIAN    YOGA. 

The  Fathers  of  the  Desert. 
During  the  first  two  centuries  of  Christianity  monasti- 
clsm  was  unknown;  the  conditions  were  much  too  turbu- 
lent, and,  besides,  the  second  coming  of  Jesus  was  daily 
looked  for  during  a  good  part  of  that  time.     But  in  the 
third  century  accident  introduced  an  element  of  mysti- 
cism into  the  Church  that  its  founders  had  not  thought 
of,  and  made  sure  of  its  success  thenceforth.     A  refugee 
from  the  Decian  persecution,  known  afterwards  as  Paul 
the  Hermit,  fled  to  the  Egyptian  desert  and  hid  himself 
away  in  one  of  the  tombs  dug  out  of  rock  which  are  so 
numerous  there.     He  was  followed  by  many  others,  Saint 
Anthony  among  them,  all  of  whom  became  hermits ;  soon 
there  was  quite  a  nation  of  such,  and  by  the  close  of  the 
next  century  in  a  great  part  of  Egypt  the  monastic  popu- 
lation was  nearly  equal  to  that  of  the  cities.     Away  from 
the  churches  and  priestly  control,  solitary  and  in  pov- 
erty, given  to  prayer  and  penance,  the  refugees  found 
themselves  in   true  yoga  conditions,  and  early  began, 
much  to  their  own  surprise  and  disquiet,  no  doubt,  to 
have  yoga  experiences.     Dalgairns,  a  Catholic  writer,  in 
his  introduction  to  the  authorized  account  of  "  The  Fa- 
thers of  the  Desert,"  says  of  them  that  the  Church  "  had 
such  confidence  in  its  own  strength  and  in  the  loyalty  of 
her  children  that  she  allowed  them  to  go  out  into  the 
wilds  and  lead  a  solitary  life — allowed  them  to  stray  into 
the  desert  and  plunge  into  the  dangerous  depths  of  con- 
templation— left  them  to  win  their  own  spiritual  experi- 
ence."    Troubled  by  the  stirring  within  them  of  those 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  J59 

mystical  forces  common  to  all  men  however  variously  in- 
terpreted, the  hermits  were  accustomed  to  come  together 
and  exchange  experiences  and  counsel,  until  in  time  some 
among  them  became  by  that  means  sufficiently  instructed 
to  act  as  teachers  of  the  rest — gurus.  The  yoga  prac- 
tice thus  resulting,  in  the  absence  of  other  mould  to  re- 
ceive it,  took  Christian  form,  and  thus  came  into  being 
Christian  magic,  a  magic  that  will  be  seen  to  have  been 
a  fit  adjunct  and  support  to  a  faith  whose  chief  article  is 
salvation  by  torture. 

Mr.  Lecky  says,  in  speaking  of  this  movement :  "  There 
is,  perhaps,  no  phase  in  the  moral  history  of  mankind 
of  a  deeper  or  more  painful  interest  than  this  ascetic 
epidemic.  A  hideous,  sordid  and  emaciated  maniac, 
without  knowledge,  without  patriotism,  without  natural 
affection,  passing  his  life  in  a  long  routine  of  endless 
self-torture,  and  quailing  before  the  ghastly  phantoms  of 
his  delirious  brain  become  the  ideal  of  the  nations  which 
had  known  the  writings  of  Plato  and  Cicero  and  the  lives 
of  Socrates  and  Cato."  Again:  "  Some  of  the  hermits 
lived  in  deserted  dens  of  wild  beasts,  others  in  dried-up 
wells,  while  others  found  a  congenial  resting  place  among 
the  tombs.  Some  disdained  all  clothes  and  crawled  abroad 
like  wild  beasts,  covered  only  by  their  matted  hair.  In 
Mesopotamia,  and  part  of  Syria,  there  existed  a  sect 
known  by  the  name  of  'Grazers,'  who  never  lived  under 
a  roof,  who  ate  neither  flesh  nor  bread,  but  spent  their 
time  forever  on  the  mountain  side,  and  ate  grass  like 
cattle.  The  cleanliness  of  the  body  was  regarded  as  a 
pollution  of  the  soul,  and  the  saints  who  were  most  ad- 
mired had  become  one  hideous  mass  of  clotted  filth." 
The  women  were  no  neater  than  the  men,  as  witness 
famous  Saint  Sylvia,  who  was  such  a  devoted  slut  that 
when  her  own  uncleanliness  had  made  her  ill,  she  refused 
to  take  the  bath  prescribed  for  her  cure;  witness  also 
Saint  Mary  of  Egypt,  once  a  great  beauty,  as,  naked 
and  blackened  with  the  dirt  of  forty-seven  years'  accre- 


260  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

tion,  her  tangled  hair  floating  in  the  wind,  she  treads 
along  the  valley  of  Moab,  and  as  she  passes  by  a  medi- 
tating anchorite  frightens  him  into  believing  her  an 
image  of  the  devil  conjured  up  to  mock  him.  Ignor- 
ance seemed  to  be  in  as  much  favor  with  them  as  un- 
cleanliness.  "The  great  majority  of  the  early  monks 
appear  to  have  been  men  who  were  not  only  absolutely 
ignorant  themselves,  but  who  also  looked  on  learning  with 
positive  disfavor."  "The  duty  of  a  monk,"  said  Saint 
Jerome,  "is  not  to  teach,  but  to  weep,"  In  weeping,  by 
the  way,  they  were  proficient;  one  of  them  wept  his  eye- 
lashes off  their  lids  and  wore  a  cloth  on  his  breast  to 
catch  his  tears.  Many  of  them  kept  themselves  continu- 
ally under  the  pangs  of  hunger,  some  taking  but  one 
meal  every  two  days,  and  others  but  one  in  a  week.  For 
two  centuries  the  craziness  lasted,  and  then  the  free  and 
wild  yoga  of  the  desert,  having  developed  a  new  element 
for  ecclesiasticism  to  work  upon,  and  having  also  become 
dangerously  turbulent,  passed  under  priestly  control, 
and  in  time  became  the  regulated  monasticism  that  now 
exists.  The  same  Dalgairns  truly  asserts  that  to  the 
fathers  of  the  desert  the  Church  owes  its  mystical  the- 
ology, and  praises  their  methods  of  mortification  and 
prayer,  as  being  still  obligatory  on  good  Catholics.  His 
words  are  these:  "There  is  no  possible  Christian  life 
but  in  the  old  path  of  mortification  and  prayer."  He 
makes,  too,  the  singular  admission  that  the  yoga  methods 
of  the  desert  were  essentially  the  same  as  those  of  the 
Neoplatonists;  he  says:  "  Neoplatonism  was  a  doctrine 
of  which  the  end  and  object  was  union  with  God;  and 
though  their  god  was  impersonal,  yet  their  system  was  a 
real  mysticism  of  which  the  climax  was  ecstasy.  Proclus 
also,  in  his  books  on  the  Theology  of  Plato,  and  Plotinus 
himself,  in  many  places,  speak  much  of  ecstasy  and  of 
abstraction  from  the  things  of  sense,  in  a  way  not  con- 
trary to  the  maxims  of  Christian  wisdom."  Again,  the 
author  of    "The    Heavenly  Wisdom    according   to   the 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  261 

E^ptians,"  thus  writes  of  himself:  "I  often,  when 
engaged  in  mental  contemplation,  seem  to  leave  my 
body  and  to  enjoy  the  possession  of  the  highest  good 
with  marvellous  delight."  "Wherein,"  says  Dalgairns, 
"did  this  system  of  union  with  God  differ  from  that  of 
St.  Anthony  ?  " 

But  it  did  differ,  and  widely.  As  regards  methods, 
the  Neoplatonist  was  not  bound  to  any  religious  observ- 
ance, afifiliation  or  declaration  of  faith,  nor  need  he  re- 
nounce the  world,  live  in  poverty  or  as  a  celibate,  torment 
his  flesh  or  go  dirty,  while  as  to  the  state  of  absorption 
he  aimed  at,  it  was,  if  less  complete  than  that  of  a  Hindu 
Yoga,  far  more  so  than  that  the  Christian  ascetic  could 
hope  for,  and  with  a  God  as  different  from  Jehovah  as  a 
principle  is  from  a  person.  Dalgairns  gives  as  a  reason 
why  the  methods  of  the  desert  were  better  than  those  of 
the  Neoplatonists  that  the  latter  had  to  be  both  learned 
men  and  philosophers.  But  if  the  fact  that  without 
being  either,  the  anchorites  attained  to  ecstasy  and  union 
with  their  god  proves  that  neither  learning  nor  philoso- 
phy could  have  been  essential,  the  other  fact  that  the 
philosophers  got  to  theirs  without  being  Christians, 
hermits,  ascetics  celibates  or  paupers,  without  self-tor- 
ment, vermin  or  dirt,  proves  that  no  more  were  any  of 
these  essential.  Clearly,  then,  neither  was  the  only  way. 
The  Christian  Church  has  long  since  discovered  that  dirt 
and  vermin  are  not  nice  nor  necessary  means  of  grace, 
though  penance  remains  still  in  vogue.  All  three  of 
them  are  offences  against  the  human  body;  and  the 
human  body  it  is  that  yoga  practice  most  manifestly 
works  upon,  the  earliest  results  being  its  improved  health 
and  beauty,  and  into  it  flow  and  along  its  nerves  play  the 
vibrations  so  often  mentioned  in  the  Church  writings  as 
"bliss,  sweetness,  the  sweetness  of  the  flesh,"  etc.  An 
ascetic  absorbed  in  devotion  may  easily  fall  into  slovenly 
ways,  but  the  saints  of  the  desert  were  slovenly  on  re- 
ligious principle.      The  Essenes  wore  their  garments  to 


262  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

rags,  but  kept  clean  skins.  So  do  Hindu  Yogis  now, 
unless  perchance  they  be  of  the  sect  of  Jains,  who,  be- 
lieving all  life  to  be  divine  and  therefore  sacred,  will  not 
wash  or  scratch  themselves  lest  they  should  kill  vermin 
or  animalculae.  These,  too,  are  dirty  on  a  religious  prin- 
ciple, but  a  different  one  from  that  of  the  Christians, 
who  believed  divine  favor  could  be  got  by  bodily  discom- 
fort and  cutaneous  disease /^r  se.  These  were  to  them 
modes  of  penance,  and  penance  being  a  sacrament  of 
their  church,  sacramental  too  were  fleas  and  the  itch. 
But  uncleanness  cannot  possess  any  magical  value,  since 
it  cannot  be  supposed  to  aid  concentration.  It  is  other- 
wise with  pain,  and  such  bloody  self-flagellations  as 
Saint  John  of  the  Cross  and  Saint  Theresa  were  addicted 
to,  had  doubtless  a  certain  value  in  helping  them  on  their 
way,  for  pain  compels  concentration  even  to  the  extent 
of  inducing  the  trance  state  which  in  turn  kills  it,  as  in 
the  cases  of  martyrs  hereinbefore  alluded  to.  Admit- 
ting this,  we  may  also  admit  that  for  such  devotees  as 
are  too  indolent  or  stupid  to  acquire  the  requisite  con- 
centration in  any  pleasanter  way  painful  inflictions  may 
have  their  use,  and  though  futile  as  a  means  of  pleasing 
God,  may  be  effective  in  fixing  the  mind.  But  this  could 
be  the  case  only  in  the  earlier  of  the  two  stages  into 
which,  as  will  be  seen.  Christian  mystics  divide  the  saint's 
progress,  namely  meditation;  in  the  later  one,  that  of 
contemplation,  it  could  hardly  prove  other  than  a  dis- 
traction. 

St.  John  of  the  Cross. 
How  Christian  mysticism,  thus  strangely  originating  in 
the  wilderness,  afterwards  in  the  keeping  of  the  church 
took  shape  and  development  is  well  shown  in  the 
lately  republished  life  and  writings  of  Saint  John  of  the 
Cross,  already  mentioned,  a  work  of  high  authority.  He 
was  indeed  an  able  man,  who  in  the  midst  of  his  maniacal 
austerities  could  dissect  and  analyze  his  own  abnormal 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  265 

sensations,   visions  and  ideas  witli  a  strong  hand  and 
clear  head,  and  note  down  and  classify  them  in  a  way 
that  makes  his  book  of  great  service  to  the  modern  stu- 
dent of  things  occult.     By  his  time  monasticism  had  lost 
much  of  the  severity  of  its  earlier  centuries,  and  prob- 
ably all  of  the  untidiness  the  fathers  of  the  desert  carried 
into  it.     Nothing  in  the  account  of  his  life  which  the 
book  contains  tells  of  his  being  unclean,  however  much 
maturated.     On  the  contrary,  it  affirms  with  detail  that 
the  rags  from  his  sores  were  regularly  washed,  and  hj 
ladies  of  rank  who  disputed  with  one  another  for  privi- 
lege to  do  so,  in  a  rivalry  made  the  more  eager  by  the 
fact  that  the  linen  had  a  true  odor  of  sanctity.     But  the 
mitigation  of   the    original   austerities   of    the   order   of 
Carmelites  to  which  he  belonged,  which  mitigation  had 
obtained  general  acceptance,  did  not  at  all  please  one 
who  could  wear  about  his  waist  a  barbed  iron  chain  plus 
a  sackcloth  shirt  and  do  with  but  two  hours  of  sleep  in  a 
night,  and  John  of  the  Cross  went  all  lengths  with  his  co- 
adjutor the  nun  Theresa,  in  making  the  practice  conform 
to  the  old  rule,  in  getting  back  to  the  usages  of  the  times 
when  the  brethren  of  Saint  Mary  first  left  the  world  "to 
live  in   caves  and    hollows  of  the  rocks  intent  on   the 
service  of  God  and  their  own  salvation."     Of  the  nun  it 
is  told  that  she  would  flog  her  white  back  till  the  red 
blood  sprinkled  the  walls  of  her  cell,  and  of  the  monk 
that  "through  the  silence  of  the  night  the  sound  of  his 
lash  would  reach  the  ears  of  the  friars,  who  trembled 
when  they  heard  it,  for  they  knew  how  merciless  he  was 
to    himself."     What    is    strange    is   that   both    of   them 
seemed  to  like  it,  seemed  to  have  in  some  way  got  so 
hungry  for  it  that  it  must  have  lost  all  virtue  as  a  penance 
and  become  a  sinful  indulgence.     In  fact  John  of  the 
Cross,  in  denouncing  certain  innovations  in  the  direction 
of  increased  severity,  seems  himself  to  have  thought  as 
much.     He  gave  as  a  reason  against  them  that  the  young 
friars  "would  be  carried  away  by  the  sweetness  of  exces- 


264  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

sive  penance  and  miss  the  road  to  solid  devotion. "  Again 
he  says  of  such  "gluttons  '  as  he  terms  them,  "Allured 
by  the  sweetness  they  find  therein,  some  of  them  kill 
themselves  with  penance."  Being  at  one  time  a  prisoner 
in  the  keeping  of  his  opposers,  the  Friars  of  the  Mitiga- 
tion, he  was  each  evening  at  supper  time  brought  into  the 
refectory,  and  scourged  on  his  bare  shoulders  in  a  way 
that  marked  him  for  life.  But  he  took  the  scourging 
with  such  evident  satisfaction  that  his  tormentors  got 
tired  of  it  and  desisted.  "This  was  to  him  another  grief; 
he  complained  to  his  gaoler,  and  asked  him  why  he  was 
forgotten  and  deprived  of  his  only  consolation."  All 
which  is  hard  to  understand  unless  we  can  suppose  that 
practice  thoroughly  and  long  persisted  in,  has  power, 
along  with  other  bodily  modifications  it  effects,  such  as 
adamantine  hardness,  control  of  breath,  levitation,  Her- 
culean strength,  &c.,  to  actually  reverse  the  normal 
action  of  the  sensory  nerves  and  convert  pain  into 
pleasure,  or  else  so  completely  overcome  pain  by  pleasure 
that  none  is  felt,  which  last,  by  the  way,  would  hardly 
be  more  strange  than  that  a  condemned  witch  could 
tranquilly  slumber  on  a  pile  of  burning  fagots,  a  thing 
that  has  often  happened. 

The  miraculous  experiences  of  John  of  the  Cross  be- 
gun early  in  his  boyhood.  He  fell  into  a  deep  pool,  but 
floated  on  the  surface,  and  was  rescued  without  needing 
to  accept  the  extended  hand  of  a  suddenly  appearing 
beautiful  visionary  lady.  He  fell  into  a  well,  but  was  re- 
ceived in  the  arms  of  a  like  apparition,  so  that  he  took 
no  hurt.  The  voice  of  the  Lord  was  heard  by  him,  both 
inwardly  and  by  his  outer  ear.  Called  to  confess  a  nun, 
and  finding  her  dead,  he  prayed  her  back  to  life,  and 
kept  her  so  long  enough  to  be  shrived:  and  then  she 
died  a  second  time.  He  and  Theresa,  while  conversing 
in  the  convent  parlor,  were  both  raised  in  the  air,  the 
monk  on  one  side  of  the  bars  and  the  nun  on  the  other; 
and  at  all  times  he  was  liable  to  be  entranced  and  lifted 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  265 

up  on  the  slightest  provocation,  such  as  the  singing  of  a 
verse  of  a  hymn.  A  nun  tempted  by  a  spirit  of  blas- 
phemy, uncleanness  and  doubt  was  relieved  by  his  minis- 
trations, but  as  soon  as  he  left  her  the  Devil  assumed  his 
form  and  went  and  re-confessed  her  on  his  own  account. 
When  the  friar  discovered  this  he  made  sure  it  should 
not  again  occur  by  writing  out  and  signing  his  instruc- 
tions. But  soon  came  a  letter,  as  from  him,  that  again 
reversed  them,  and  which  was  so  well  forged  that  when 
shown  it  he  declared  it  was  his  own  handwriting  and  sig- 
nature. The  Devil  then  was  taken  in  hand  and  regularly 
exorcised.  But  he  played  the  same  prank  with  another 
penitent,  from  whom  he  had  obtained  a  written  contract 
that  she  would  be  his  bride  as  his  recompense  for  having 
conferred  on  her  the  gift  of  tongues.  Again  exorcised, 
he  confessed  and  gave  up  the  contract.  Here  was  no  vic- 
tory for  John  of  the  Cross,  for  the  Devil  prevailed  until 
the  power  of  the  Church  was  called  in,  but  Saint  Theresa 
wrote  that  he  had  put  to  flight  three  legions  of  devils, 
whom,  in  the  name  of  God,  he  commanded  to  tell  their 
number,  and  was  obeyed  on  the  instant.  Just  before  he 
escaped  from  prison  his  cell  was  brightly  and  supernatu- 
rally  illuminated,  and  the  Lord's  voice  was  heard  promis- 
ing he  should  be  set  free,  which  was  soon  done,  the 
Virgin  Mary  herself  showing  him  the  way  out.  Again, 
while  praying  before  a  picture  of  Jesus  a  voice  came  from 
it  saying:  "  John,  what  shall  I  give  thee  for  all  thou  hast 
done  and  suffered  for  me?"  He  was  able  to  read  the 
secret  thoughts  of  his  penitents,  reminding  them  of  sins 
they  had  forgotten  or  fraudulently  omitted  to  confess. 
Finally,  he  calmed  a  tempest,  extinguished  a  conflagra- 
tion, and  obtained  a  supply  of  food,  all  by  his  prayers. 
With  all  these  gifts  he  died  in  disgrace,  stripped  of  all 
his  offices,  but  that  was  what  he  liked,  and  had  prayed 
for.  Humility  is  an  important  condition  to  yoga  prac- 
tice, for  the  reason  that  it  is  the  opposite  to  self-conceit, 
which   is  a  sad  hindrance   to  concentration,   as   is  well 


366  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

recognized  by  both  Chinese  and  Hindu  authorities.  John 
of  the  Cross,  to  be  sure,  knew  nothing  of  Chinese  or  Hindu 
Yoga,  but  as  a  Christian  he  held  to  the  promise  of  Jesus, 
that  "  he  who  humbleth  himself  shall  be  exalted,"  and 
humbled  himself  accordingly.  The  reward  he  received 
must  have  exceeded  his  highest  expectations,  for  his  de- 
parture was  honored  with  prodigies  such  as  any  saint 
might  be  proud  of.  Just  before  he  died  there  appeared 
a  great  orb  of  light  encircling  him,  "  which  was  so  brill- 
iant as  to  dim  the  other  lights  in  the  room  and  the  can- 
dles on  the  altar,"  and  on  the  Monday  night  following 
the  funeral,  his  brethren  being  assembled  as  usual  for 
discipline  in  the  darkened  church,  "were  suddenly  sur- 
prised by  a  great  light  which  filled  the  whole  church. 
Some  thought  that  all  the  lights  had  not  been  put  out, 
and  the  prior  gave  orders  in  that  sense,  but  those  who 
were  near  the  grave  were  seized  with  a  holy  fear,  for 
they  saw  that  it  had  come  from  the  tomb  of  the  saint, 
whose  sepulchre  it  had  pleased  our  Lord  to  make  thus 
glorious  before  their  eyes.  In  a  few  minutes  the  light 
disappeared."  Nine  months  after  interment,  upon  his 
grave  being  opened,  the  body  was  found  incorrupt,  per- 
fectly fresh  and  supple,  giving  out  a  most  fragrant  per- 
fume. When  one  devotee,  to  obtain  a  relic,  cut  off  a 
finger,  the  hand  bled  freely,  and  when  another  attempted 
to  do  the  same  it  was  jerked  out  of  his  grasp.  A  piece 
of  the  flesh  kept  in  a  glass  jar  took  on  a  good  likeness  of 
the  saint,  and  conjured  up  to  the  eyes  of  many  persons, 
at  many  different  times  visions  of  the  Virgin  and  Child, 
of  Christ  on  the  cross,  of  John  himself,  Peter  and  other 
saints,  besides  Elijah  the  Prophet  and  many  angels. 
And  so  died  John  of  the  Cross,  after  making  as  many 
people  as  he  could  as  uncomfortable  as  he  could,  died 
glorying  in  his  humility  and  in  an  odor  of  sanctity  pecul- 
iar, penetrating  and  persistent. 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  267 

The  Writings  of  St.  John  of  the  Cross. 
The  voluminous  work  that  he  left  behind  him  was 
written,  as  he  tells  us,  at  the  request  and  for  the  benefit 
of  "only  certain  persons  of  our  holy  order  of  Mount  Car- 
mel  of  the  primitive  observance."  It  was,  therefore,  like 
the  Upanishads  of  the  Hindus,  written  by  a  yogi  and  for 
the  instruction  of  yogis.  It  is  nothing  less  than  a  manual 
of  Christian  yoga,  by  which  devotees  may  be  led  along 
the  path  to  what  he  terms  "the  high  state  of  perfection, 
called  here  union  of  the  soul  with  God;"  again,  "the 
perfect  union  of  the  love  of  God;"  again,  "being  trans- 
formed in  God;  because  he  communicates  his  own  super- 
natural being  in  such  a  way  that  the  soul  seems  to  be 
God  himself  and  to  possess  the  things  of  God.  The  soul 
seems  to  be  God  rather  than  itself,  and  indeed  is  God  by 
participation,  though  in  reality  preserving  its  own  nat- 
ural substance  as  distinct  from  God  as  it  did  before." 
But  to  show  how  little  the  approachment  here  indicated 
is  from  the  identification,  absorption  or  assimilation  of 
other  systems,  we  have:  "But  remember  that  among  all 
creatures,  the  highest  and  the  lowest,  there  is  not  one 
that  comes  near  unto  God.  For,  though  it  be  true,  as 
theologians  tell  us,  that  all  creatures  bear  a  certain  rela- 
tion to  God,  and  are  tokens  of  his  being,  some  more, 
some  less,  according  to  the  greater  or  less  perfection  of 
their  nature,  yet  there  is  no  essential  likeness  or  com- 
munion between  them  and  him;  yea,  rather  the  distance 
between  His  divine  nature  and  their  nature  is  infinite." 
No  stronger  words  than  these  are  needed  to  distinguish 
the  end  and  aim  of  Christian  yoga  from  the  end  and  aim 
of  every  other.  Connected  with  the  state,  whatever  it 
may  be,  that  is  here  termed  union  with  God,  much  is 
said  about  ecstatic  "  touches  "  of  knowledge  and  sweet- 
ness given  by  Him,  that  are  so  strong  and  profound  as  to 
penetrate  into  the  innermost  substance  of  the  soul,  ' '  For 
there  are  some  acts  of  knowledge  and  touches  of  God 


268  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

wrought  by  Him  in  the  substance  of  the  soul  which  so  en- 
rich it  that  one  of  them  is  sufficient,  not  only  to  purge 
away  at  once  certain  imperfections  which  had  hitherto 
resisted  the  efforts  of  a  whole  life,  but  also  to  fill  the  soul 
with  virtues  and  divine  gifts.  Such  is  the  sweetness  and 
deep  delight  of  these  touches  of  God,  that  one  of  them 
is  more  than  a  recompense  for  all  the  sufferings  of  this 
life,  however  great  their  number. "  Sometimes  the  touches 
are  surprises,  coming  when  the  soul  is  occupied  with 
something  else,  at  times  coming  gently  and  at  times  so 
as  to  make  "not  only  the  soul,  but  the  body  also,  to 
tremble."  They  are,  it  is  furthermore  stated,  "a  part 
of  the  union  " — are  "  touches  of  union. " 

The  external  conditions  proper  to  the  practice  of 
Christian  Yoga  are  poverty,  seclusion  and  solitude,  and 
the  internal  ones  detachment,  devotion  and  humility, 
while  the  practical  methods  are  religious  observance, 
prayer,  fasting,  penance,  meditation  and  spiritual  con- 
templation. All  of  these  are  found  in  Hindu  Yoga. 
Poverty,  seclusion  and  solitude  are  easily  seen  to  be 
important  aids,  if  not  essential  ones,  to  concentration; 
so  is  devotion,  itself  a  mode  of  concentration;  so  is 
humility,  as  neutralizing  self-conceit  and  giving  recep- 
tivity, while  detachment,  which  means  the  not  setting 
the  heart  on  things  of  this  life,  whether  possessing  them 
or  not,  is  a  mental  state  of  evident  importance.  Com- 
plete detachment  is  an  absolute  cut-off  from  temptations 
and  disturbances  of  every  sort.  Prayer,  fasting  and 
other  religious  observance  serve  as  helps  to,  or  even  as 
substitutes  for,  concentration;  but  while  the  Hindu  who 
has  by  means  of  them  "attained"  is  thereby  released 
from  them  all,  the  Christian  ascetic  never  is  done  with 
any  of  them,  his  religion  never  letting  go  her  grip  on 
his  magic ;  and  since  the  time  of  St.  Benedict  the  Church 
no  longer  allows  "the  yells  of  the  wild  Egyptian  monks 
to  disturb  the  propriety  of  her  councils,"  but  holds  her 
ascetics    securely  controlled    in    monasteries    and    nun- 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  269 

neries.     Other  methods  of  yoga  practice  include  among 
their  austerities  self-inflicted  penance  of  the  kind  calling 
for  passive  endurance  and  intended  to  induce  and  also 
test  the  virtue  of  equanimity,  the  flower  of  stoical  philos- 
ophy;   but   in    Christian    Yoga   penance   plays   a  much 
larger  part,  because,  as  said  before,  Christian  religion 
adds  another  motive  to  it,  namely,  the  desire  to  please 
God  by  displeasing  ourselves.     In  early  Christian  times, 
when  Adam's  fall,   hell's  fire  and  redemption  by  cruci- 
fixion were   about   the  sum  and  substance  of   the  new 
religion,  there  must  have  been  ever  present  in  believers' 
minds  the   idea  of  torment,  tending   to  breed    there   a 
morbid    taste    for  it   and   a   disposition   to  supplement 
Christ's  sufferings  with  their  own,  so  that  the  measure 
of   his   Father's  wrath   might   not   merely  be  kept  full 
but  made  to  run  over,  and  a  desire  in  each  of  them  to 
have  a  cross  and  passion  of  his  own.     Thus  when  the 
refugees  from  persecution  took  to  the  desert,  their  relig- 
ious  exercise   consisted  of    prayer   and    penance    only. 
"  They  anticipated  no  contemplation,"  says  Dalgairns. 
So  that  as  their  prayers  were  brief  and  few  their  devo- 
tions must  have  been  chiefly  made  up  of  hurting  them- 
selves in  diverse  ways,  until  the  favoring  conditions  of 
enforced  solitude  and  idleness  let  in  meditation  and  con- 
templation and  made  involuntary  yogis  of  them.     John 
of  the  Cross  distinguishes  meditation  from  the  succeed- 
ing stage  of  contemplation  as  follows:    "  The  difference 
between  these  two  conditions  of  the  soul  is  like  the  dif- 
ference between  working  and  enjoyment  of  the  fruit  of 
our  work;  between  receiving  a  gift  and  profiting  by  it; 
between  the  toil  of  travelling  and  the  rest  at  our  jour- 
ney's end;  between  the  preparation  of  our  food  and  the 
eating  or  enjoyment  of  it.     If  the  soul  be  not  occupied 
either  with  its  bodily  faculties  in  meditation  and  reflec- 
tion, or  with  its  spiritual  faculties  in  contemplation  or 
pure  knowledge,  it  is  impossible  to  say  that  it  is  occu- 
pied at  all."     He  then  tells  the  signs  by  which  it  may  be 


270  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

known  that  the  time  has  come  to  pass  from  meditation 
to  contemplation ;  they  are  present  when  it  becomes 
irksome  to  meditate,  or  when  there  is  disinclination  to 
fix  the  imagination  or  the  senses  on  particular  objects, 
but  more  distinctly  when  the  soul  delights  to  be  alone, 
waiting  lovingly  on  God,  without  any  particular  con- 
siderations, in  interior  peace,  quiet  and  repose,  where 
the  acts  and  exercises  of  the  understanding,  memory  and 
wmII,  at  least  discursively — which  is  the  going  from  one 
subject  to  another — have  ceased;  nothing  remains  ex- 
cept that  knowledge  and  attention,  general  and  loving, 
of  which  I  have  spoken,  without  the  particular  percep- 
tion of  aught  else."  Till  these  signs  appear  it  is  better 
to  continue  practicing  meditation,  and  even  after  quit- 
ting it,  it  is  sometimes  well  to  return  to  it.  Of  the 
nature  of  contemplation  it  is  trance.  A  state  of  trance 
in  which  the  soul  receives  divine  knowledge  is  thus  de- 
scribed: "  The  soul  seems  unconscious  of  all  it  knows, 
and  is  therefore  lost,  as  it  were,  in  forgetfulness,  know- 
ing not  where  it  is,  nor  what  has  happened  to  it,  unaware 
of  the  lapse  of  time.  It  may  and  does  occur  that  many 
hours  pass  while  it  is  in  this  state  of  forgetfulness;  all 
seems  to  last  but  a  moment  when  it  again  returns  to 
itself.  The  cause  of  this  forgetfulness  is  the  pureness 
and  simplicity  of  this  knowledge,  which,  being  itself 
pure  and  clear,  cleanses  the  soul  while  it  fills  it,  and 
purifies  it  of  all  the  apprehensions  and  forms  of  sense 
and  memory  through  which  it  once  acted  and  thus  brings 
it  to  a  state  of  forgetfulness  and  unconsciousness  of  the 
flight  of  time.  The  prayer  of  the  soul,  though  in  reality 
long,  lasts  but  for  a  moment,  because  it  is  an  act  of 
pure  intelligence."  John  of  the  Cross  was  often  in  such 
trances,  and  wrote  from  his  own  experiences. 

Concerning  the  revelations  which  come  by  way  of 
such  deep  contemplation,  he  says:  "Some  supernatural 
knowledge  is  corporeal,  and  some  spiritual.  The  former 
is  of  two  kinds:  one  of  them  enters  the  understanding 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  271 

through  the  exterior  bodily  senses ;  and  the  other  through 
the  interior  bodily  senses,   comprehending  all  that  the 
imagination  may  grasp,  form  and  conceive.     The  spirit- 
ual supernatural  knowledge  is  also  of  two   kinds:    one 
distinct  and  special;    the    other  confused,  obscure  and 
general.     The  first  kind  comprises  four  particular  appre- 
hensions, communicated  to  the  mind  without  the  inter- 
vention  of  any  one  of   the  bodily  senses.      These  are 
visions,  revelations,  locutions  and  spiritual  impressions. 
The  second  kind,  which  is  obscure  and  general,  has  but 
one  form,  that  of  contemplation,  which  is  the  work  of 
faith.     The  soul  is  to  be  led  into  this  by  directing  it 
thereto  through  all  the  rest,  beginning  with  the  first,  and 
detaching  it  from  them  "  (one  by  one).     Of  the  super- 
natural "apprehensions"  just  named,  the  following  are 
instances:     "They  (spiritual    men)  sometimes    see    the 
forms   and  figures  of   those  of   another  life,   saints,  or 
angels,  good  and  evil,  or  certain   extraordinary  lights 
and  brightness.     They  hear  strange  words,    sometimes 
seeing  those  who  utter  them,  and  sometimes  not.     They 
have  a  sensible  perception  at  times  of  most  sweet  odors, 
without  knowing  whence  they  proceed.     Their  sense  of 
taste  is  also  deliciously  affected;  and  that  of  the  touch 
so  sweetly  caressed  at  times  that  the  bones  and  the  mar- 
row exult  and  rejoice,  bathed  as  it  were  in  joy."     But 
all  these,  for  many  reasons,  which  he  elaborates,  one  of 
which  is  that  the  devil  can  produce  them  as  well  as  God, 
we  must  reject  and  disregard.      "The  soul  must  close 
its  eyes  on  and  reject  them,  come  they  whence  they  may 
— unless  in  certain  rare  instances,  after  examination  by 
a  learned  spiritual  and  experienced  director."     But  John 
of  the  Cross  speaks  only  for  himself.     A  church   that 
cackles  with  triumph  as  often  as  a  miraculous  Q.gg  is  laid 
within    her  fold  is    not  the  institution  to   sanction  the 
flinging  overboard  of  a  cargo  of  evidences  of  Christianity 
having  virtue  sufficient  to  establish  an  hundred  religions 
and  an  hundred  heresies,  as  such  things  go. 


272  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

Next  in  order  in  the  devotee's  spiritual  experience  are 
locutions,  or  words  supernaturally  produced,  without  the 
instrumentality  of  the  bodily  senses,  and  designated  as 
successive,  formal  and  substantial.  Successive  words 
come  to  the  mind  when  it  is  absorbed  in  a  given  subject, 
and  then  it  "  puts  words  and  reasonings  together  so  much 
to  the  purpose,  and  with  such  facility  and  clearness  dis- 
covers by  reflection  things  it  knew  not  before,  that  it 
seems  to  itself  as  if  it  were  not  itself  which  did  so,  but 
some  third  person  which  addressed  it  interiorly,  reason- 
ing, answering  and  informing  ;  the  mind  then  reasons 
with  itself  as  one  man  with  another."  "He  who  is  in 
this  state  cannot  believe  that  the  words  do  not  proceed 
from  some  third  person."  The  disposition  prevailing  in 
his  day  even  among  those  who  had  hardly  begun  to  medi- 
tate, to  accept  such  words  as  coming  from  God  filled  our 
saint  with  terror.  "But,"  says  he,  "it  is  not  true  ; 
such  an  one  has  only  been  speaking  to  himself."  The 
words  may  come  from  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  devil,  or  the 
natural  light  of  the  understanding,  and  it  is  hard  to  tell 
which,  but  there  should  be  no  account  made  of  any  of 
them  "  from  whatever  source  they  may  come."  Formal 
words  are  such  as  the  mind  "  formally  perceives  to  be 
spoken  by  a  third  person  independently  of  its  own  opera- 
tions, without  any  effort  on  its  part,  sometimes  even 
when  the  mind  is  not  recollected,  and  is  far  from  think- 
ing what  is  uttered  within  it,  which  is  not  the  case  with 
successive  words,  which  always  relate  to  a  matter  which 
then  occupies  the  mind."  These,  too,  may  come  either 
from  God  or  the  devil.  Before  acting  upon  them  the 
confessor  must  be  consulted  and  "  no  soul  who  does  not 
deal  with  them  as  with  an  enemy  "  is  safe  from  delusions. 
Substantial  words  execute  themselves — are  acts  of  God 
and  not  merely  commands  or  instructions.  Thus  when 
he  spoke  these  to  Abraham,  "  Walk  before  me  and  be  per- 
fect," Abraham  was  by  the  very  fact  of  their  utterance 
made  perfect;  it  was  not  his  to  accept  or  reject  them. 


CHRISTIAN   YOGA.  273 

The  saint  informs  us  that  neither  the  understanding  of 
man  nor  the  arts  of  the  devil  can  simulate  substantial 
words. 

Next  in  order  come  "  spiritual  impressions,"  which  are 
of  two  degrees  of  excellence,  both  acting  directly  on  the 
will.  ' '  Neither  the  soul  that  receives  them,  nor  its  direc- 
tor can  ever  know  their  sources,  or  why  God  effects  them ; 
they  do  not  depend  in  any  way  on  good  works  or  medita- 
tion." They  are  caused  by  "touches  of  union  "  with  God, 
are  "most  intense,  high,  profound,  and  secret,  and  seem 
not  to  touch  the  will,  but  to  have  been  wrought  in  the 
very  substance  of  the  soul,"  and  from  them  "there  flows 
frequently  into  the  understanding  the  apprehension  of 
knowledge  or  intelligence  which  is  usually  a  most  pro- 
found and  secret  sense  of  God,  to  which,  as  well  as  to  the 
impression  from  which  it  flows,  no  name  can  be  given." 
Yet  even  here,  he  says,  there  is  danger  of  delusion  and 
need  of  caution ;  "  the  understanding  ought  not  to  meddle 
with  them,  but  remain  passive,  inclining  the  will  to  con- 
sent freely  and  gratefully,  and  not  interfering  itself." 

Stupidity. 

The  saint  has  much  to  say  in  relation  to  "  the  purga- 
tion and  active  night  of  the  memory  and  the  will,"  and 
of  the  annihilation  of  both  powers,  in  the  matter  of  their 
operation,  in  respect  to  all  knowledge  whether  of  natural 
or  supernatural  objects.  Beginning  with  natural  knowl- 
edge, he  says:  "The  memory  must  be  stripped  and  emp- 
tied of  it  all;  it  must  labor  to  destroy  all  sense  of  it,  so 
that  no  impression  whatever  shall  be  left  behind."  And 
again :  "  The  more  the  memory  is  united  to  God  the  more 
it  loses  all  distinct  knowledge,  and  at  last  all  such  fades 
utterly  away  when  the  state  of  perfection  is  reached.  In 
the  beginning,  when  this  is  going  on,  great  forgetfulness 
ensues;  men  neglect  themselves  in  outward  things,  for- 
getting to  eat  and  drink.  But  he  who  has  attained  to  the 
habit  of  union  is  able  to  attend  to  the  duties  of  life  by 


274  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

means  of  knowledge  supplied  in  a  special  way  by  God,  the 
operation  of  the  memory  and  of  the  other  powers  being 
in  that  state,  as  it  were,  divine.  God  has  entered  into 
possession."  To  illustrate  the  methods  by  which  one  so 
possessed  is  directed  the  following  is  offered:  "A  per- 
fect man  has  at  a  certain  time  a  certain  indispensable 
business  to  transact.  He  has  no  recollection  whatever 
of  it,  but  in  some  way  he  knows  not,  it  will  present 
itself  to  his  mind,  through  that  stirring  of  his  memory  of 
which  I  speak,  at  the  time  and  in  the  way  it  ought,  and 
that  without  fail."  Supernatural  knowledge  is  equally 
with  natural  a  danger  and  a  hindrance,  and  "visions  and 
revelations,  locutions  and  impressions  "  must  all  be  rig- 
orously emptied  out  and  carefully  kept  out  of  memory. 
"  It  is  therefore  necessary  for  the  soul  to  forget  and  de- 
tach itself  from  all  distinct  forms  and  knowledge  of  super- 
natural things,  that  it  may  not  hinder  in  the  memory  the 
divine  union  in  perfect  hope. "  Having  shown  how  to  pu- 
rify the  memory,  the  saint  next  considers  the  will,  which, 
he  says,  must  be  purged  of  all  its  affections  or  passions, 
namely,  of  joy,  hope,  grief  and  fear.  "Man  must  feel 
no  joy  except  for  that  which  is  simply  for  the  honor  and 
glory  of  our  Lord  God,  nor  hope  except  in  him,  nor  grief 
except  in  what  concerns  him,  nor  fear  but  of  him  only," 
and  he  quotes  from  one  Boethius:  "Wilt  thou  contem- 
plate truth  in  a  clear  light?  Drive  away  joy  and  hope 
and  grief  and  fear."  All  which  shows  that  no  system  of 
yoga  practice  can  go  further  than  the  Christian  in  the 
thoroughness  of  its  detachment  and  renunciation. 

The  Horrors. 

The  next  step  on  the  way  to  sainthood  brings  the  prac- 
ticer  to  the  stage  which  our  teacher  names  "the  dark 
night."  This  night — it  is  contemplation — produces  two 
sorts  of  darkness  or  purgation,  the  first  of  which,  the 
night  of  sense,  in  which  the  soul  is  purified  or  detached 
from  things  of  sense,  is  the  lot  of  many;  the  second,  in 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  275 

which  it  is  purified  and  detached  in  the  spirit  and  pre- 
pared for  union  with  God,  is  the  lot  of  very  few  and  is 
little  spoken  or  written  about,  or  even  known  by  ex- 
perience.    In    this   night  are  the  well-known   religious 
"horrors"  common  to  Protestants  and  Catholics  alike. 
The  night  of  sense  is  bitter  and  terrible  to  the  senses, 
but  the  night  of  spirit  is  incomparably  more  awful  to  the 
spirit.     Souls  begin  to  enter  the  dark  night  when  God  is 
drawing  them  out  of  the  state  of  beginners,  or  those  who 
meditate,  and  is  leading  them  into  that  of  proficients,  or 
those  who  contemplate,    in  order  that,   having   passed 
through  this,  they  may  arrive  at  the  state  of  union  with 
God,  which  is  that  of  the  perfect.     In  the  dark  night  the 
practicer  finds  himself  unable  to  advance  a  single  step  in 
meditation  as  before,  the  inward  sense  being  overwhelmed 
and  abandoned  to  dryness  so  great  that  he  has  no  longer 
joy  or  sweetness  in  his  spiritual  exercises,  finding  nothing 
in  their  place  but  insipidity  and  bitterness.     All  his  own 
efforts  are  now  in  vain,  for  he  is  being  led  by  another 
and  different  road,  that  of  contemplation.     But,  with  all 
this,  there  will  in  due  course  come  a  consciousness  of 
strength  and  energy;  and  this  is  the  commencement  of 
contemplation,  which  in  this  stage  is  generally  secret  and 
goes  on  unknown  to  him  who  is  being  acted  on,  and  by 
the  dryness  and  emptiness  it  produces  in  the  senses  makes 
him  long  for  solitude  and  quiet,  without  the  power  of 
reflecting  on  anything  distinctly,  or  even  desiring  to  do 
so.     In  this  state  he  should  know  how  to  be  quiet,  to  dis- 
regard every  exterior  or  interior  work,   to  be  without 
solicitude  for  anything,  and  resign  himself  into  the  hands 
of  God,   keeping  his  soul  tranquil,   for  were  he  now  to 
exert  his  interior  faculties  they  would  only  hinder  and 
ruin  the  good  which  God  is  working  to  his  soul.     Among 
the  spiritual  "imperfections"  of  beginners  are  pride, 
avarice,  anger,  envy,  gluttony  and  luxury.     In  treating 
of  this  last  the  saint  discloses  experiences  of  a  peculiar 
nature,  and  which  must  be  noted  here,  that  later  they 


276  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

may  be  considered  and  compared  with  like  experiences  in 
other  yogas.  He  says  that  practicers  very  often,  in  the 
midst  of  their  spiritual  exercises,  and  when  they  cannot 
help  themselves,  feel  the  impure  movements  of  sensuality, 
and  sometimes  even  when  their  minds  are  absorbed  in 
prayer,  or  when  they  are  receiving  the  sacrament  of 
penance  and  the  eucharist.  And,  to  the  great  disgust  of 
the  soul,  even  when  it  has  made  some  progress,  with  the 
spiritual  delight  that  flows  into  it  the  sensual  part  occa- 
sionally mingles  its  own  delight.  Sometimes  it  is  Satan 
who  sets  up  the  rebellious  movements  in  order  to  disgust 
the  soul  during  prayer,  causing  some  to  relax  in  prayer, 
and  some  to  abandon  it  altogether,  being  more  liable  to 
these  assaults  during  prayer  than  at  other  times.  This 
is  not  all,  for  he  represents  before  them  then  most  vividly 
the  most  foul  and  filthy  images.  "  Some  are  so  grievously 
assailed  that  they  dare  not  dwell  upon  anything,  lest  it 
become  at  once  a  stumbling-block  to  them."  A  third 
source  of  these  depraved  movements  is  the  very  fear  of 
them.  But,  when  the  sensual  part  is  renewed  in  the 
purgation  of  the  dark  night,  such  afflictions  disappear, 
and  as  the  love  of  God  grows  in  the  soul  the  human  love 
cools  and  is  forgotten. 

The  Night  of  the  Spirit. 

Having  undergone  the  purgations  of  the  night  of  sense 
the  soul  attains  to  the  state  of  proficients  where  it  finds 
itself  able  to  rise  at  will  to  the  most  tranquil  and  loving 
contemplation,  and  have  joy  and  spiritual  sweetness  with- 
out the  fatigue  of  meditation.  But  it  does  not  at  once 
enter  into  union  with  God;  it  must  spend  some  time, 
perhaps  years,  in  the  exercises  of  that  state.  And  then 
there  is  yet  a  further  purgation  to  undergo,  that  of  the 
night  of  the  spirit,  without  which  the  intercourse  of  the 
proficient  with  God  is  still  most  mean.  In  that  night  the 
faculties,  affections  and  feelings,  spiritual  and  sensual, 
interior  and   exterior,   must  be   denuded,  leaving  the 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  277 

understanding  in  darkness,  the  will  dry,  the  memory 
empty,  the  affections  of  the  soul  in  the  deepest  affliction, 
bitterness  and  distress;  all  which  is  effected  in  the  soul 
by  means  of  contemplation  pure  and  dark.  And  this 
contemplation  is  not  a  night,  a  darkness  merely,  but  pain 
and  torment  as  well.  It  is  called  infused  contemplation, 
or  mystical  theology,  and  in  it  the  practicer  is,  accord- 
ing to  the  saint,  taught  by  God  the  truths  of  the  Catholic 
religion, without  effort  on  his  part,  and  in  a  secret,  hidden 
way  in  which  the  natural  operations  of  the  understanding 
have  no  share.  Many  reasons  are  given  why  the  process 
is  called  dark  and  why  it  is  painful,  but  the  reasons,  as 
well  as  the  facts  they  relate  to,  are  purely  religious,  and 
applicable  only  to  Christian  ascetics.  The  valley  of  hor- 
rors trod  by  the  Christian  pilgrim  on  his  way  to  his  God 
would,  of  course,  be  different  from  that  trod  by  a  Hindu 
one  on  his  way  to  his.  But,  besides  religious  horrors, 
practicers  of  all  faiths  must  needs  go  through  many 
"sloughs  of  despond  "  in  their  long  and  hard  journey; 
and,  moreover,  yoga  being  an  affair  of  the  body,  physical 
pangs  must  be  expected  as  well  by  all.  The  first  effect 
of  yoga  practice  is  to  put  the  body  in  good  condition, 
which,  if  disease  be  present,  often  involves  an  aggrava- 
tion of  its  symptoms,  they  being  merely  nature's  cura- 
tive efforts.  In  this  last  stage  of  the  saint's  progress  all 
effects  are  operated  through  love,  and  knowledge  and 
belief  only  come  in  by  w^ay  of  the  heart.  In  his  "Spiritual 
Canticle  of  the  Soul  and  the  Bridegroom  Christ "  and 
"Living  Flame  of  Love,"  and  his  voluminous  commen- 
taries on  them  which  cover  350  octavo  pages,  John  of  the 
Cross,  inadvertently  perhaps,  emulates  Solomon  in  say- 
ing one  thing  and  meaning  another,  in  treating  of  divine 
love  in  terms  of  human  love.  Of  his  writings  it  may  be 
said  that  they  not  only  identify  Christian  sanctity  with 
Hindu  and  other  yoga,  but  embody  a  large  number  of 
experiences  of  great  scientific  value. 


278  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

Postel. 

Contemporary  with  John  of  the  Cross  was  Guillaume 
Postel,  a  French  monk  and  physician,  one  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  the  time.  Crowds  of  students  attended 
his  teaching  at  the  College  of  Lombards  in  Paris,  and  it 
was  said  of  him  that  there  came  out  of  his  mouth  as 
many  oracles  as  words.  But  though  in  high  favor  with 
the  great,  he  was  accused  by  theologians  of  deism  and 
atheism  because  he  claimed  to  be  able  to  prove  the  Chris- 
tian religion  to  be  true  by  reason  alone  and  asserted  that 
by  means  of  reason,  without  aid  of  faith,  he  would  him- 
self convert  the  whole  world.  He  claimed,  moreover, 
that  all  the  truths  of  nature  were  written  in  Hebrew  char- 
acters on  the  sky  formed  by  the  arrangement  of  the  stars, 
and  that  he  had  read  them  there ;  and  also  that  the  Kabala 
had  revealed  to  him  that  the  world  would  last  but  six  thou- 
sand years  longer,  and  that  before  the  end  man  would 
recover  his  primitive  state  of  innocence  and  happiness. 
His  conduct  was  correct,  his  life  pure  above  reproach, 
and  his  benevolence  wide.  During  several  years  he  was 
confessor  to  a  Venetian  nun  named  Mother  Jeanne,  of 
great  repute  for  sanctity,  and  abounding  in  spiritual  gifts, 
of  the  order  John  of  the  Cross  held  to  be  untrustworthy, 
such  as  visions,  revelations,  transfiguration,  etc.  Already 
possessed  by  the  idea  of  woman's  supremacy,  he  easily 
fell  under  her  control,  and  in  his  newly  devised  religious 
system  made  her  the  chief  character  as  the  incarnation 
of  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  mother  regenerator 
of  all  mankind;  reserving  to  himself  the  spiritual  head- 
ship of  the  new  church  to  be  made  up  of  the  Jews  and 
all  Christian  sects,  including  the  Mohammedans,  united 
in  one  fold,  and  which  all  others  were  to  be  invited  to 
enter  on  pain  of  death,  and  according  to  the  King  of 
France  the  temporal  empire  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth 
united  in  peace. 

Pursuant  to  a  promise  the  nun  made  to  him  she  came 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  279 

to  him  after  she  died  ;  as  he  expressed  it:  "  She  kept  her 
word.  She  came  to  me  in  Paris,  she  illumined  me  with 
her  light,  she  reconciled  my  reason  with  my  faith.  Her 
substance  and  spiritual  body  two  years  after  her  ascen- 
sion to  heaven  descended  into  me,  and  extended  them- 
selves throughout  my  sensible  body,  so  that  it  is  she  and 
not  I  that  lives  in  me."  Concerning  her  appearance  as 
he  knew  her  in  life  he  says  that,  though  more  than  fifty 
years  old,  she  would  pass  for  fifteen,  especially  when 
taking  the  communion;  and  of  his  own,  after  she  took 
possession  of  him  as  above,  it  is  related  that  his  pale, 
old  wrinkled  visage  became  smooth  and  rosy  and  his 
white  locks  became  black. 

To  obtain  spirituality  Postel  prescribed,  besides  very 
fervent  prayer,  very  devout  meditation  and  very  vehe- 
ment contemplation,  and  in  distinguishing  the  one  from 
the  other,  says:  "Meditation  is  when  one  holds  his 
thought  a  long  time  on  a  word,  a  proposition,  or  a  fact, 
or  a  beneficence  of  our  Lord,  in  considering  his  infinite 
mercy,  power,  wisdom,  pity,  justice,  virtue,  glory  and 
other  perfect  qualities,  or,  on  the  other  hand,  on  man's 
infinite  wickedness,  felony,  weakness,  ignorance,  avarice, 
vice,  injustice,"  etc. — or,  best  of  all,  the  suffering  of 
Jesus,  dwelling  on  which,  one  hour,  or  even  one  minute, 
is  worth  more  than  a  thousand  years'  time  bestowed  on 
any  other  subject. 

"And  what,"  he  asks,  "is  contemplation?"  "It  is 
known  to  but  few  and  is  very  difficult  to  make  under- 
stood, but  by  similitudes  it  may  be  explained.  Just  as 
the  doctrine  of  metaphysics  treats  of  natural  things  with- 
out considering  the  words,  bodies  or  images  of  them 
which  are  in  the  mind,  but  by  considering  them  by  their 
essences,  abstract  and  wholly  separate  from  body,  so 
also  should  contemplation  do.  Meditation  must  pass  into 
contemplation  when  the  soul  would  force  itself  to  know 
and  feel  God  in  all  nature,  so  that  only  the  sovereign 
cause  of  all  things  is  perceived  there,  which  is  essence, 


280  CHRISTIAN   YOGA. 

unity,  truth  and  divine  goodness,"  and  "seeing  in  all 
things  the  spirit  of  God."  In  fine,  contemplation  is 
nothing  else  than  reducing  all  objects  into  divine  beauty, 
and  the  passion  of  God  into  the  infinite  love  whence  it 
proceeds,  as  much  that  love  which  is  intellectual  and 
high  as  into  that  which  is  low,  animal  and  sensual. 
Postel  closed  his  life  in  enforced  seclusion,  and  after 
signing  as  many  recantations  as  were  laid  before  him. 

Quietism. 

In  the  following  century  rose  the  sect  known  as  Quiet- 
ists,  of  which  Miguel  Molinos,  another  Spanish  priest,  was 
the  head  and  Madame  Guyon  the  most  famous  disciple. 
Possibly  Quietism  was  the  most  seductive  heresy  that 
ever  troubled  Rome,  whither  Molinos  early  in  his  career 
went  for  the  purpose  of  preaching  it,  and  whence  it  rap- 
idly spread  throughout  all  Catholic  countries,  gaining 
adherents  among  the  highest  church  dignitaries,  includ- 
ing the  Pope  himself.  In  Naples  alone  there  were  20,000 
who  followed  the  "  new  method,"  as  it  was  called.  In  it 
religious  observances  had  so  small  a  part,  and  its  good 
fruits  were  so  evident,  that  the  Jesuits  became  alarmed 
and  resolved  to  suppress  it.  They  tried  polemics  at 
first.  A  book  written  by  one  of  them  took  the  ground 
that  though  Quietism  in  itself  was  good,  its  practice  led 
to  evil.  The  Quietist  was  too  good  for  this  rude,  brawl- 
ing world,  and  this  new  method,  however  useful  to  very 
pious  souls,  was  not  fitted  for  the  every-day  life  of  the 
ordinary  Christian.  But  so  strong  had  Quietism  already 
become  that  the  writer  of  the  polemic  was  condemned 
by  the  Inquisition  and  his  book  put  in  the  Index.  The 
Jesuits,  however,  became  all  the  more  eager  to  put  down 
the  rising  heresy,  and  brought  influences  to  bear  which 
finally  caused  the  Inquisition  to  arrest  Molinos,  try  and 
condemn  him,  despite  his  powerfnl  supporters.  He 
escaped  being  burnt  by  making  public  abjuration,  and  so 
was  allowed  to  live  out  his  life  in  prison.      Equally  ener- 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  281 

getic  action  elsewhere  suppressed  the  movement  com- 
pletely. Viewed  as  merely  a  religious  modification,  Quiet- 
ism is  briefly  but  well  described  by  Bishop  Burnet,  thus: 
"  The  substance  of  the  whole  is  reduced  to  this,  that,  in 
our  prayers  and  other  devotions,  the  best  methods  are  to 
retire  the  mind  from  all  gross  images,  and  so  to  form  an 
act  of  faith,  and  thereby  to  present  ourselves  before  God, 
and  then  to  sink  into  silence  and  cessation  of  new  acts, 
and  to  let  God  act  upon  us,  and  so  to  follow  His  con- 
duct. This  way  Molinos  preferred  to  the  multiplication 
of  new  acts  and  other  forms  of  devotion,  and  he  makes 
small  account  of  corporeal  austerities  and  reduces  all  the 
exercises  of  religion  to  this  simplicity  of  mind.  He 
thinks  this  is  not  only  to  be  proposed  to  religious  houses, 
but  even  to  secular  persons."  Just  here  was  the  offence 
of  Molinos.  He  undertook  to  popularize  the  methods  of 
sanctification  discovered  by  the  fathers  of  the  desert  and 
well  known  to  the  Church,  but  in  practice  confined  to 
cloistered  persons  only,  and  to  that  end  had  mitigated 
and  simplified  them  so  that  all  could  practice  them. 
Confined  to  monasteries  and  nunneries,  the  eccentrici- 
ties and  "enthusiasms"  of  the  yogis  and  yoginis  could 
be  controlled  or  hidden,  and  even  made  to  do  service  to 
the  Church,  which  had,  however,  too  good  a  recollection 
of  the  disturbances  made  in  earlier  times  by  those  same 
fathers  to  let  yoga  again  get  loose  in  the  Catholic  world. 
Secular  persons  might  well  enough  be  fed  by  their  spirit- 
ual directors  with  such  moderate  portions  of  that  mag- 
ical ecstasy  which  goes  by  the  name  of  religious  comfort 
and  consolation  as  a  daily  round  of  religious  observances, 
fastings,  repetitions  and  other  lulling  monotonies,  and 
occasional  "retreats"  might  procure  them,  and  yet  be 
kept  in  order.  But  to  allow  them  to  help  themselves,  to 
allow  God  to  act  as  confessor  and  spiritual  director,  to 
open  a  postern  door  free  to  all  in  Saint  Peter's  own  gate, 
would  be  quite  another  thing.  The  Quietists  lived  ex- 
emplary lives  and  were  happy  in  their  religion,  but  they 


282  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

were  indifferent  as  to  religious  observance.  They  seldom 
went  to  mass  or  confession,  or  made  pilgrimages,  did  but 
scanty  penance,  cared  little  for  images  or  relics,  and 
spent  little  money  for  praying  out  of  purgatory  their 
dead  relations.  Such  a  movement  as  theirs  must  needs 
be  dangerous  to  any  church,  because  dangerous  to  re- 
ligion itself.  Had  it  been  allowed  to  go  on  the  religious 
appendages  to  contemplation  would  one  after  another 
have  been  found  to  be  non-essential  and  dropped,  until 
finally  there  would  have  remained  only  Quietism  pure 
and  simple,  that  is  to  say  yoga  pure  and  simple.  Assur- 
edly,then,the  Jesuits  were  wise  in  their  generation.  How 
far  their  wisdom  would  avail  them  in  this  generation  is 
another  question.     The  Holy  Inquisition  is  no  more! 

Although  greatly  mitigated  in  severity,  the  instructions 
of  Molinos  to  his  penitents  were  essentially  the  same  as 
those  of  John  of  the  Cross  to  his.  The  practicer  must 
be  "quiet  from  fears,  void  of  affections,  desires  and 
thoughts,  must  work,  pray,  obey  and  suffer  without  being 
the  least  moved."  For  penance  the  ordinary  miseries 
of  human  life  would  serve,  but  he  must  expect  to  go 
through  seasons  of  darkness  and  dryness,  and,  when 
"  God  intends  to  guide  him  in  an  extraordinary  manner, " 
as  in  the  case  of  Madame  Guyon,  be  prepared  to  endure 
extraordinary  suffering.  In  her  detail  of  experiences 
she  says:  "The  soul  thus  in  corruption  is  so  full  of 
horror  at  itself  that  it  cannot  endure  itself.  The  pain  of 
suffering  its  own  stench  is  so  great  that  it  is  no  longer 
concerned  at  anything  that  can  be  done  to  it  outwardly. 
Nothing  any  longer  affects  it.  It  sees  itself  worthy  of 
all  scorn.  Others  see  it  only  with  horror. "  "  It  plunges 
into  putrefaction  as  into  the  place  appropriate  to  it." 
"  Well,  perhaps  this  corruption  will  last  but  a  little  while. 
Alas!  quite  otherwise.  It  will  last  several  years."  "  At 
length,  by  slow  degrees,  the  soul  gets  used  to  its  cor- 
ruption, and  it  becomes  natural  to  it,  except  at  certain 
times,  when  it  exhales  a  stench  enough  to  cause  its  death, 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  283 

were  it  not  immortal."  And  even  to  the  ordinary  peni- 
tent Molinos  says:  "  Know,  however,  that  thou  art  to  be 
plunged  in  a  bitter  sea  of  sorrow,  and  of  internal  and 
external  pains,  which  torments  will  pierce  into  the  most 
inward  part  of  thy  soul  and  body."  Certainly  in  all 
hereinbefore  summarized  of  pagan  yoga  there  has  been 
no  mention  made  of  any  such  horrors  as  these.  The 
worst  that  can  happen  to  a  Hindu  practicer,  for  example, 
if  he  fail  to  make  connection  with  his  Brahman,  is  to  go  on 
with  his  re-incarnations,  and  in  some  future  one  try  again ; 
but  the  Christian,  hanging  by  the  slender  thread  of  faith 
between  heaven's  dome  and  hell's  pit,  a  cruel  devil  below 
and  an  angry  God  above,  when  he  does  get  discouraged 
must  needs  get  horridly  so. 

In  connection  with  his  mitigation  of  the  severity  of  the 
old  cloistered  yoga  devised  to  adapt  it  to  the  world  at 
large,  Molinos  relied  on  a  peculiar  method  of  so  starting 
the  penitent  on  his  way  that  the  growth  of  his  soul  in 
sanctity  should  go  on  of  itself,  despite  disturbing  cares 
and  avocations,  "  if  he  will  walk  in  continual  and  virtual 
praying  and  strive  to  acquire  a  habit  of  internal  recol- 
lection, defined  to  mean  '  faith  and  silence  in  the  pres- 
ence of  God.'"  The  mode  of  starting  was  as  follows: 
"  Thou  oughtest  to  go  to  prayer  that  thou  mayest  deliver 
thyself  wholly  up  into  the  hands  of  God,  with  perfect 
resignation,  exerting  an  act  of  faith,  believing  thou  art 
in  the  divine  presence,  afterwards  settling  in  that  holy 
repose  with  quietness,  silence,  tranquillity;  and  endeav- 
oring for  a  whole  day,  a  whole  year,  and  thy  whole  life  to 
continue  that  first  act  of  contemplation  by  faith  and  love. " 
Then  if  his  thoughts  should  wander,  he  is  encouraged  by 
these  words:  "So  long  as  thou  retractest  not  that  faith 
and  intention  of  being  resigned  to  God,  thou  walkest  in 
faith  and  resignation  and  consequently  in  prayer  and  in 
virtual  and  acquired  contemplation,  although  thou  per- 
ceive it  not."  Virtual  prayer  and  contemplation  seem 
but  feeble  means  for  raising  the  soul  up  to  union  with 


284  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

God,  however  they  may  have  appeared  to  produce  the 
expected  results,  because  followed  by  them.  But  the 
reader  who  bears  in  mind  what  has  been  said  concerning 
Hindu  and  Chinese  Yoga  will  be  apt  to  find  the  cause  of 
such  results  in  that  measure  of  actual  contemplation 
which  is  compatible  with  a  busy  life,  and  is  even  found 
in  doing  the  duties  of  such  a  life,  as  in  the  cases  of  the 
Chinese  cook  and  armorer  and  the  Indian  butcher  and 
overworked  woman  of  all  work,  who  did  their  work  with 
concentrated  minds,  and  thereby  became  more  or  less  of 
yogis. 

Molinos  describes  the  progress  of  the  penitent  as 
being  along  a  path  wherein,  step  by  step,  he  is  led  by 
God,  to  whose  guidance  he  must  absolutely  yield  himself, 
happen  what  may.  Concerning  the  passing  from  medi- 
tation into  contemplation,  he  says:  "The  soul  then  that 
is  entered  into  internal  recollection  hath  no  need  to 
enter  by  the  first  door  of  meditation  on  the  mysteries, 
being  always  taken  up  in  meditating  on  them,  because 
that  is  not  to  be  done  without  great  fatigue  to  the 
intellect,  nor  does  it  stand  in  need  of  such  ratiocinations, 
since  these  serve  only  as  a  means  to  attaining  to  believ- 
ing that  which  it  hath  already  got  possession  of." 

Martin  Luther. 

Every  great  religious  movement  may  be  presumed  to 
have  been  made  by  a  mystic,  that  is  to  say,  by  a  yogi  of 
some  degree  of  attainment,  until  the  contrary  is  shown. 
Such  an  one  was  Martin  Luther,  It  was  as  a  Catholic 
monk,  shut  within  his  cell,  agonized  with  persistent  re- 
ligious horrors,  inventing  continually  new  forms  of  pen- 
ance, tormenting  himself  to  death,  as  he  expressed  it,  to 
make  his  peace  with  God,  that  he  developed  the  ability 
to  hear  a  voice  that  told  him  to  found  his  church  on  jus- 
tification by  faith,  and  to  have  clear  visions  of  the  devil. 
But  this  ceased  when  he  became  an  avowed  Protestant 
and  had  to  go  out  into  the  world  and  strive  with  his 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  285 

opposers,  so  that  he  hardly  got  further  on  the  path  than 
Mohammed  did.  And  he  discarded  monasticism,  fasts, 
vigils  and  penances  and  other  practices  promotive  of 
mental  concentration,  while  as  to  the  visions,  voices  and 
other  mystical  phenomena  which  concentration  is  apt  to 
produce,  the  spiritual  impressions,  trances,  etc.,  he  dis- 
posed of  them  all  by  roundly  announcing  to  the  world 
that  the  age  of  miracles  was  past.  Thus  he  severed  re- 
ligion from  magic,  its  mother,  and  made  Protestantism 
an  orphan  from  its  birth.  Had  he  instead  of  this  sup- 
planted monasticism  by  Quietism,  Protestantism  might 
have  become  something  more  than  a  mode  of  disintegra- 
tion and  decay. 

Paracelsus. 

There  are  some  who  discover  in  the  alchemists  only 
secret  practicers  of  yoga,  who  under  terms  of  chemistry 
hid  their  teachings  from  all  but  their  own  kind,  and  not 
only  never  made  a  grain  of  gold,  but  never  attempted  it, 
nor  were  chemists  at  all.  Others  strenuously  contend  that 
they  did  actually  produce  real  gold  in  quantities  so  large 
that  one  of  them  furnished  a  king  of  England  with  the 
means  of  carrying  on  a  foreign  war  and  another  instituted 
and  maintained  in  the  city  of  Paris  many  charitable 
houses. 

Should  it  ever  be  demonstrated  that  the  occult  powers 
invoked  by  our  Spiritualists  have  performed  the  wonder 
called  materialization  even  to  the  extent  of  producing  a 
spray  of  geranium,  the  contention  may  resolve  itself  into 
a  compromise  which,  admitting  the  gold,  but  denying  the 
chemistry,  shall  attribute  the  result  to  materialization. 
And  then  the  alchemists  will  appear  as  well  advanced 
yogis,  who,  not  caring  to  be  detected  in  working  unauthor- 
ized miracles  in  times  when  burning  at  the  stake  was  yet  in 
vogue,  pretended  to  be  smelting  and  distilling  in  the 
seclusion  of  their  laboratories,  while  in  fact  they  were 
only  meditating  and  contemplating  for  the  purpose  of 


286  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

acquiring  magical  powers.  In  any  case  their  writings, 
which  disclose  nothing  save  an  intent  to  disclose  nothing, 
are  of  small  value  in  the  present  research.  But  there  has 
lived  one  alchemist  who  was  not  of  these.  Paracelsus 
was  born  in  1483,  and  was  therefore  a  contemporary  of 
Luther,  to  whom  and  to  whose  reform  he  was  friendly, 
though  not  taking  any  part  in  the  latter,  for  he  was  above 
all  sects,  because  above  all  religions,  unless  magic,  which 
was  to  him  all  in  all,  be  religion.  None  of  the  sects,  he 
said,  possessed  intellectually  the  true  religion,  which  was 
yet  to  appear  in  the  world.  This  gives  great  value  to  his 
teachings,  delivered  as  they  were  from  a  free  and  inde- 
pendent mind,  for  which  public  opinion  had  no  terrors. 
Though  well  educated,  he  had  little  esteem  for  books, 
and  sought  knowledge  of  men  and  things  by  associating 
with  all  manner  of  men  and  handling  all  sorts  of  things, 
and  going  about  on  foot  in  out-of-the-way  places,  doing 
good  wherever  he  went,  for  he  was  a  good  man  withal — 
no  man  could  be  hungry  for  knowledge  as  he  was  with- 
out a  sympathetic  and  unselfish  nature.  Thus  constituted, 
he  stands  forth  as  the  first  great  magician  of  Europe  who 
held  his  knowledge  in  trust,  as  it  were,  for  the  good  of 
all,  and  kept  nothing  secret  that  it  was  safe  to  promul- 
gate. 

Paracelsus  was  an  avowed  magician.  As  such  he 
claimed  to  have  discovered  important  secrets  of  nature 
and  obtained  healing  power.  He  says:  "Magic  is  a 
teacher  of  medicine  far  preferable  to  all  written  books. 
Magic  alone  (that  can  neither  be  conferred  by  the  uni- 
versities nor  created  by  the  awarding  of  diplomas,  but 
which  comes  from  God)  is  the  true  teacher,  preceptor 
and  pedagogue,  to  teach  the  art  of  curing  the  sick.  As 
the  physical  forms  and  colors  of  objects,  or  as  the  letters 
of  a  book  can  be  seen  by  the  physical  eye,  likewise  the 
essence  and  character  of  all  things  may  be  recognized 
and  become  known  by  the  inner  sense  of  the  soul.  I 
have  reflected  a  great  deal  upon  the  magical  powers  of 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  287 

the  soul  of  man,  and  I  have  discovered  a  great  many 
secrets  in  nature,  and  I  will  tell  you  that  he  only  could 
be  a  true  physician  who  has  acquired  this  power."  The 
means  of  doing  which  he  says  are  prayer,  or  strong  de- 
sire or  aspiration,  and  exalted  imagination  and  absolute 
faith  in  the  omnipotence  of  the  power  within  ourselves. 
"  The  great  world  is  only  the  product  of  the  universal 
mind,  and  man  is  a  little  world  of  its  own  that  imagines 
and  creates  by  the  power  of  imagination.  If  man's  im- 
agination is  strong  enough  to  penetrate  into  every  corner 
of  his  interior  world,  it  will  be  able  to  create  things  in 
those  corners,  and  whatever  man  thinks  will  take  form 
in  his  soul.  ...  He  who  wants  to  know  how  a  man  can 
unite  his  power  of  imagination  with  the  power  of  the  im- 
agination of  heaven  must  know  by  what  process  this  may 
be  done.  A  man  may  come  into  possession  of  creative 
power  by  identifying  his  own  mind  with  the  Universal 
Mind,  and  he  who  succeeds  in  doing  so  will  be  in  posses- 
sion of  the  highest  possible  wisdom;  the  lower  realm  of 
nature  will  be  subject  to  him,  and  the  powers  of  heaven 
will  aid  him,  because  heaven  is  the  servant  of  wisdom." 
..."  The  exercise  of  true  magic  does  not  require  any 
ceremonies  or  conjurations,  or  the  making  of  circles  or 
signs;  it  requires  neither  benedictions  or  maledictions, 
ceremonies  or  conjurations,  neither  verbal  blessings  nor 
curses;  it  only  requires  a  strong  faith  in  the  omnipotent 
power  of  all  good,  that  can  accomplish  everything  if  it 
acts  through  a  human  mind  who  is  in  harmony  with  it, 
and  without  which  nothing  useful  can  be  accomplished." 
.  .  .  "Man  is  created  with  great  powers;  he  is  greater 
than  heaven  and  greater  than  the  earth."  ...  "By 
faith,  imagination  and  will  we  may  accomplish  whatever 
we  desire." 

Yet,  unlike  the  disciples  of  schools  and  systems  of 
medicine,  and  even  his  far-away-off  followers,  the  heal- 
ers of  various  denominations  of  our  day,  Paracelsus  in 
his  practice  employed  whatever  mode  of  cure  promised 


288  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

the  best  results,  whether  it  were  a  drug  or  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  "Ills  of  the  body,"  he  said,  "may  be 
cured  by  physical  remedies,  or  by  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  (Holy  Ghost)  acting  through  the  soul."  ...  He 
who  possesses  the  power  to  cure  diseases  and  to  drive 
out  evil  influences  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit  is  ordained 
of  God."  Yet,  while  believing  himself  to  be  so  ordained, 
he  was  at  the  same  time  indefatigable  in  the  use  of  his 
gift  of  sensing  the  presence  of  medicinal  virtues  to  dis- 
cover new  remedies  in  whatever  substance  nature  had 
hid  them,  and  making  his  discoveries  known. 

If  strict  yoga  practice  was  necessary  to  qualify  for  all 
this,  a  born  yogi  like  him,  the  opportunity  to  both  learn 
and  pursue  it,  was  afforded  by  his  sojourn  of  many  years 
in  Asiatic  countries,  and  he  was  not  the  man  to  neglect 
such  an  opportunity.  Many  of  his  ideas  are  plainly 
Hindu,  and  it  is  highly  probable  that  he  traveled  and 
studied  in  Hindustan.  But  he  was  a  yogi  of  his  own 
sort;  unlike  the  Hindu  sages,  who  disregard  all  magical 
gifts  that  come  in  their  way  on  the  yoga  path,  he  appro- 
priated and  used  them,  while,  unlike  European  magicians, 
he  made  no  secret  of  them  or  of  the  way  of  acquiring 
them,  save  in  special  cases.  Concerning  heaven  he  says: 
"  If  we  speak  of  heaven,  we  then  speak  of  our  home,  of 
our  own  country." 

Of  the  nature  of  man  we  have  this:  "The  essential 
man  is  not  limited  by  the  visible  physical  form  of  his  ma- 
terial body;  his  spiritual  substance  extends  as  far  as  the 
stars.      His  true  self  is  the  spirit  of  God." 

"Before  his  fall  man  could  rule  over  the  sun  and  the 
stars.  Everything  was  in  his  power.  Fire,  air,  water 
and  earth  could  not  tame  him;  no  fire  burned  him,  no 
water  drowned,  no  air  suffocated  him."  "  No  heat,  no 
cold,  no  sickness,  no  accident,  nor  any  fear  could  touch 
or  terrify  him.  His  body  could  pass  through  earth  and 
rocks  without  breaking  anything  in  them;  for  a  man  who 
could  be  overpowered  by  the  terrestrial  nature,  or  who 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  289 

could  be  broken  to  pieces  would  not  be  eternal."  Here 
seem  to  be  all  the  requisites  for  the  terrestrial  immortal 
man  which  some  think  will  yet  enjoy  his  eternity  in 
physical  form  on  this  same  material  planet.  Finally  we 
have :  "The  soul  in  the  power  of  God  penetrates  through 
all  things  and  is  as  powerful  as  God  himself,"  which  re- 
calls the  "lam  Brahman,"  of  the  Hindu  perfected  saint. 
Where  the  philosophy  of  Paracelsus  agrees  with  that 
of  the  Hindus  he  must  be  presumed  to  have  obtained  it 
from  them,  and  so  when  we  find  Boehme,  who  came 
long  after  Paracelsus,  giving  out  as  his  own  the  ideas  of 
the  latter,  he  must  be  considered  as  his  disciple  rather 
than  his  rival,  even  when  they  came  to  him  while  in  his 
ecstatic  state,  and,  as  he  believed,  from  the  Holy  Spirit, 
for  it  is  the  well-known  habit  of  inspirations  to  embody 
and  adapt  themselves  to  the  preconceived  notions  of  the 
mediums  through  which  they  come.  By  the  time  Boehme 
appeared  the  teachings  of  the  other  must  have  got  well 
abroad  and  ready  to  be  imbibed,  even  by  those  who  did 
not  read  his  books.  The  points  of  agreement  in  the 
doctrines  of  the  two  were  :  The  unity  of  God ;  the  omnip- 
otence of  man;  the  union,  if  not  identity,  of  both;  the 
disregard  of  the  personal  Jehovah  and  the  historical 
Jesus,  and  the  resolving  of  all  deity  into  an  impersonal 
principle;  magic  as  the  creative  and  operative  force  in 
Nature.  All  which  was  old  Hinduism,  newly  taught,  but 
the  new  teaching  had  most  important  effects  on  the 
European  minds.  It  was  a  protest  at  once  against  Prot- 
estantism and  Romanism,  so  far  as  it  related  to  relig- 
ious notions,  and  as  regards  science  was  a  revival  of  the 
long-neglected  methods  of  the  earlier  students  of  Nature 
as  she  is,  and  not  as  philosophers  think  she  should  be. 

Boehme. 

Notwithstanding  Luther's  effort  to  stamp  out  mysti- 
cism, there  arose  in  Germany  a  century  after  him  Jacob 
Boehme,  a  believer  in  miracles,  a  worker  of  miracles  and 


290  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

a  miracle  himself.  He,  too,  was,  in  Hindu  parlance,  a 
born  yogi.  The  measure  of  solitude  and  leisure  possible 
to  him  while  serving  as  a  herdboy  and  afterwards  while 
working  at  the  very  quiet  and  lonely  trade  of  shoemaker, 
sufficed  to  develop  him  while  as  yet  a  youth  into  what 
John  of  the  Cross  would  have  termed  a  proficient  and 
the  Hindus  a  well  advanced  candidate.  A  brief  sketch 
of  his  mystical  experiences  and  a  statement  of  a  few  of 
the  leading  philosophical  ideas  which  resulted  from  them 
will  give  some  idea  of  the  quality  of  this  greatest  yogi 
of  Protestant  times. 

At  the  age  of  nineteen  Boehme  got  married,  and  it  was 
as  the  head  of  a  family  and  while  working  for  its  support 
that  he  did  his  meditation  and  contemplation,  and  got 
his  ecstasies  and  illuminations,  thereby  proving  that  for 
some  natures  at  least  renunciation  of  the  duties  of  life  is 
not  essential  to  progress  in  sanctification.  But  incidents 
related  of  him  show  that  he  knew  the  value  of  solitude, 
and  kept  much  by  himself,  and  in  his  "  Dialogue  between 
a  Scholar  or  Disciple  and  His  Master,"  he  says:  "When 
thou  art  '  quiet  or  silent,  then  thou  art  that  which  God 
was,*"  etc.  His  methods  of  concentration  were  those 
usual  with  devotees.  An  access  of  the  horrors  gave 
rise  to  devotional  concentration,  which  took  form  as 
an  intense  longing  to  find  the  heart  of  Jesus  Christ 
wherein  he  might  hide  himself  and  find  protection  from 
the  fearful  wrath  of  God.  The  result  he  thus  describes; 
"While  engaged  in  such  an  earnest  seeking  and  desiring 
the  door  was  opened  to  me,  so  that  in  one  quarter  of  an 
hour  I  saw  and  learned  more  than  if  I  had  studied 
many  years  in  the  universities."  But  a  late  experience 
taught  him  that  it  mattered  not  what  he  concentrated 
on,  for  a  glittering  point  in  a  newly  brightened  pewter 
platter  that  caught  his  eye  and  held  it  for  a  while  sent 
him  into  as  good  an  ecstasy  as  could  be  wished. 
After  declaring  that  he  wrote  "  only  for  those  who  desire 
to  be  sanctified    and    united  with    the  Supreme    Power 


CHRISTIAN  YOGA.  291 

from  which  they  have  originated,"  he  gives  the  following 
instructions:  "Thine  own  hearing,  willing  and  seeing 
prevents  thee  from  seeing  God.  But  if  you  keep  quiet 
and  desist  from  thinking  and  feeling  within  your  per- 
sonal self-hood,  then  will  the  eternal  hearing,  seeing  and 
speaking  become  revealed  to  you."  "We  should  be 
blind  and  deaf  and  mute,  and  know  nothing,  and  know 
of  no  life  of  our  own.  The  practicer  "should  leave 
money  and  goods,  father  and  mother,  brother  and  sister, 
wife  and  child,  body  and  life,  and  his  own  self  should 
become  as  nothing  to  him.  He  must  surrender  every- 
thing, and  become  poorer  than  a  bird  of  the  air  that  has 
no  nest."  But  this  was  only  a  sub  modo  renunciation. 
Having  surrendered  all  his  possessions  to  God,  the 
surrenderer  might  still  hold  them  of  Him  as  a  kind  of 
fief;  and  thus  renunciation  be  made  easy.  Boehme 
wrote  his  books,  as  he  affirms,  under  inspirational  im- 
pression. "  I,  in  my  human  self,  do  not  know,"  he  said, 
"what  I  shall  have  to  write;  but  whatever  I  am  writing 
the  Spirit  dictates  to  me  what  to  write,  and  shows  me  all 
in  such  a  wonderful  clearness  that  I  do  not  know  whether 
or  not  I  am  with  my  consciousness  in  this  world."  .  .  . 
"I  might  sometimes  perhaps  write  more  elegantly  and 
in  better  style,  but  the  fire  burning  in  me  is  driving 
me  on.  My  hand  and  my  pen  must  then  seek  to  follow 
the  thoughts  as  well  as  they  can.  The  inspiration  comes 
like  a  shower  of  rain.  That  which  I  catch  I  have.  If 
it  were  possible  to  grasp  all  that  I  perceive,  then  would 
my  writings  be  more  explicit."  And  certainly  a  reader 
can  readily  believe  him  when  he  says  that  it  was  only 
while  the  Holy  Ghost  was  present  with  him  that  he  him- 
self could  understand  them.  His  idea  of  God  is  that, 
"  in  his  primitive  aspect  he  is  not  to  be  conceived  of  as 
a  being,  but  merely  as  the  power  or  the  intelligence  con- 
stituting the  potentiality  for  being — as  an  unfathomable 
eternal  will,  wherein  everything  is  contained,  and  which, 
although  itself   everything,  is,   nevertheless,  only  one, 


292  CHRISTIAN  YOGA. 

but  desirous  of  revealing  itself  and  to  enter  into  a 
state  of  spiritual  being. "  .  .  .  "  God  is  eternal  unity, 
the  unmeasurable  one  good,  having  nothing  before  or 
after  it  that  could  possibly  endow  it  with  something  or 
move  it.  It  is  without  any  inclinations  or  qualities, 
without  any  beginning  in  time,  within  itself  only  One." 
This  God  creates  by  the  exercise  of  "the  divine  magic 
power,"  which  is  "the  spirit  desirous  for  being.  It  is 
essentially  nothing  but  will,  but  it  enters  into  existence. 
It  is  the  greatest  mystery;  it  is  above  nature,  and  forces 
nature  to  assume  forms  according  to  the  form  of  its 
will.  It  introduces  the  foundation  into  the  abyss  of  the 
groundlessness  and  changes  nothing  into  something." 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

YOGA    IN    GENERAL. 

Methods  of  Practice. 

The  materials  for  a  comparative  study  of  yoga,  so  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  collect  them,  are  now  before  the 
reader.  Those  which  relate  to  Hindu  Yoga  are  seen  to 
be  the  most  complete  of  all,  and  by  their  sufficiency  to 
make  up  for  the  scantiness  of  the  others.  It  will  be 
observed  that  the  postures,  breathings  and  movements 
are  peculiar  to  that  yoga,  and  that  of  these  the  move- 
ments are  peculiar  to  Hatha  Yoga,  while  the  postures 
and  breathings,  though  more  or  less  borrowed  from  it 
by  the  others,  have  nowhere  the  prominence  accorded 
to  them  by  the  Hatha,  being  by  some  prescribed  as  a 
preparative  practice  good  for  beginners  only,  and  by 
others  merely  tolerated  as  fortifying  the  health,  whereas 
the  Hatha,  as  set  forth  by  Swatmaram,  seems  to  insist 
on  the  importance,  if  not  the  necessity,  of  all  its  methods. 
But  if  the  postures,  breathings  and  movements  were  essen- 
tial to  success,  they  would  be  found  in  all  yogas.  And 
this  consideration  would  move  us  to  dismiss  them  as  of 
inferior  importance,  were  it  not  that  the  American  ex- 
periences, that  have  before  been  stated,  seem  to  prove  a 
necessary  and  wonderful  connection  to  exist  between  the 
bodily  manifestations  on  the  one  part  and  mental  con- 
centration on  the  other.  Those  experiences,  it  will  be 
remembered,  showed  that  mere  concentration,  unalloyed 
by  any  philosophical,  ethical  or  religious  admixture, 
will  suffice,  if  long  enough  persisted  in,  to  set  up,  inde- 
pendently of  the  will  of  the   practicer,   all   the  bodily 


294  YOGA    IN   GENERAL. 

processes  of  Swatmaram's  book,  save  only  a  few  that, 
from  their  nature,  require  the  concurrence  of  the  con- 
scious will,  and  that,  except  the  hundred  or  more  move- 
ments that  were  of  the  nature  of  mesmeric  passes  or 
massage  manipulations,  those  experiences  did  not  go 
beyond  that  book.  Thus  there  were  brought  into  play 
intelligence,  force  and  will — and  why  not  providence 
also? — from  a  source  beyond  the  consciousness  of  the 
practicer,  yet  all  operating  within  his  body.  It  is  not 
strange  that  mankind  have  generally  believed  that  such 
manifestations  indicate  bodily  possession  by  some  de- 
parted soul  or  other  supernatural  being,  but  those  of  the 
present  time  who  study  the  experiences  in  question  will 
probably  discard  that  supposition  along  with  the  Hindu 
one  of  a  deva  descending  from  heaven  to  act  as  guru, 
and  the  Christian  one  of  direct  guidance  by  God's  own 
hand,  in  favor  of  the  more  rational  one,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  that  when  a  practicer  has  by  his  own  efforts  made  a 
certain  progress  along  the  path,  nature  comes  to  his  aid 
and  conducts  him  the  rest  of  the  way.  Whether  all 
practicers  may  expect  to  be  thus  favored,  that  is  to  say, 
whether  all  men  are  so  constituted  as  to  be  thus  acted 
on  is  another  question.  Probably  all  of  us  have,  in  some 
degree,  magical  capabilities,  whether  for  developing  or 
operative  magic,  by  which  I  mean  that  all  are  possible 
prophets.  Probably  all,  whether  in  any  measure  or  in 
no  measure  at  all  developed  as  such,  may  do  prophet's 
work  by  prophet's  methods,  /.  <?.,  by  force  of  thought, 
will,  or  whatever  other  force  comes  at  the  prophet's  call. 
That  he  has  spirits,  genii  or  gods  in  waiting  we  may  well 
doubt,  but  that  there  are  natural  forces  which,  if  rightly 
invoked,  will  do  his  bidding  may  not  be  doubted. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  American  experiences  repro- 
duced Hatha  Yoga  and  no  other.  So  far  from  sustain- 
ing the  claim  of  the  mental  yogists  that  Hatha  is  at  best 
but  a  preparation  for  entering  on  the  practice  of  their 
methods,   those  experiences    show  that  it    is  just    their 


YOGA    IN  GENERAL.  295 

methods  that  can  inaugurate  it.  And  the  teachings  of 
Swatmaram,  though  giving  no  precedence  to  concentra- 
tion, malce  it  and  the  physical  exercise  go  along  together, 
the  two  combining  to  form  a  complete  yoga  system  of 
dignity  and  importance  and  sufficiency  too  great  for  it 
to  be  put  to  use  as  a  mere  preparatory  discipline,  whether 
its  value  as  such  be,  as  some  say,  to  strengthen  the  body, 
or  as  others  say,  to  give  a  sort  of  initial  control  over 
the  mind,  in  aid  of  its  studies  in  discriminative  philos- 
ophy, etc. 

The  school  of  Sankaracharya,  which  chiefly  controls 
modern  Hindu  thought,  gives  as  a  reason  for  making 
Hatha  practice  merely  subservient  to  its  own,  that  by 
the  former  only  a  temporary  release  from  re-births  can 
be  obtained,  which  release  will  come  to  an  end  with  the 
destruction  of  the  presently  existing  universe,  whereas 
the  latter  ensures  an  eternal  release.  But  we  of  the 
West  do  not  yet  know  that  there  is  any  re-birth  to  be 
feared,  nor  that  yoga  practice  would  give  release  from 
it  if  there  were.  Both  alike  lie  beyond  the  powers  of 
perception  and  the  forms  of  knowing  we  are  accustomed 
to  rely  on. 

A  better  reason  for  preferring  mental  yoga  to  physical 
is  to  be  found  enveloped  in  Sankaracharya's  allusion  in 
the  Vedant  Sara,  before  quoted,  to  the  severe  mortifica- 
tions of  former  yogis,  which  were  such  as  in  his  time 
mankind  were  no  longer  capable  of  enduring.  Doubtless 
the  former  yogis  of  the  valley  of  the  Indus  were  better 
able  to  undergo  austerities  than  the  later  ones  of  the 
valley  of  the  Ganges,  but  the  enervating  effects  of  a 
torrid  climate  would  better  excuse  the  deterioration  that 
followed  the  abandonment  by  the  Hindu  race  of  its 
northern  home,  which  is  indicated  by  the  saying  of  one 
authority  that  a  really  great  yogi  is  now  "the  rare  efflo- 
rescence of  a  century,"  than  justify  a  preference  for  the 
easier  practice  as  being  in  itself  better  than  the  harder. 
Like  the  magicians  of  the  Indus,  those  of  the  Akkadian 


296  YOGA    IN  GENERAL. 

highlands  probably  lost  quality  after  their  emigration 
into  the  hot  plains  of  Babylonia,  and  thereby  ultimately 
lost  control  of  the  vast  empire  whose  civilization  they 
created  there.  Perhaps,  too,  in  some  remote  age  the 
Hindus  and  Akkadians  were  one  race,  with  one  magic, 
and  that  magic  Hatha  Yoga. 

As  it  is  to-day,  Hindu  Yoga  stands  distinguished  from 
all  others  by  this,  that  it  has  two  supports,  namely, 
mental  stillness  and  bodily  movement,  thus  combining 
intellectual  and  physical  training,  while  those  others  have 
only  the  first,  obtainable  by  concentration  or  its  equiva- 
lents, in  the  shape  of  religious  devotion,  etc.,  which 
operate  by  virtue  of  the  concentration  they  involve.  It 
must  be  admitted  that  the  best  method  of  developing 
man  should  include  the  whole  of  him,  and  since  Hatha 
Yoga  includes  more  of  him  than  the  others  do,  its  superi- 
ority to  them  must  follow.  Besides  this,  it  is  the  purest 
magic  of  them  all,  having  had  its  origin  in  simple  times 
before  philosophy  or  religion  came  to  trouble  it,  and 
when  only  worldly  welfare  was  cared  for;  and  since  the 
needs  of  every-day  life  are  more  urgent  than  those  of 
any  future  one,  the  resort  to  magic  must  in  those  times 
have  been  extensive  and  habitual  to  a  degree  quite  un- 
known in  these.  In  fact,  and  to  speak  plainly,  the  task 
of  the  student  of  magic  in  this  century  consists  mainly 
in  digging  through  the  rubbish  of  religion  and  philosophy 
which,  during  fifty  or  a  hundred  former  ones,  have  been 
heaped  upon  it. 

First  to  be  considered,  in  entering  upon  our  study,  are 
the  conditions  proper  to  yoga  practice;  secondly,  the 
various  methods  of  it;  thirdly,  the  results  obtainable; 
and,  fourthly,  the  object  and  aim  of  it  held  in  view  in 
each  system. 

Conditions. 

Solitude.  Although  none  of  the  systems  of  yoga  treats 
social  life  as  absolutely  inconsistent  with  successful  prac- 
tice, yet  all  of  them  regard  it  as  a  serious  hindrance,  and, 


YOGA    IN  GENERAL.  297 

as  a  rule,  yogis  have  been  solitaries  or  recluses  whenever 
they  could.  Neither  Zoroaster  in  his  cave,  Buddha  be- 
neath his  bo  tree,  Moses  on  Sinai,  Jesus  on  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  nor  Mohammed  in  his  grotto,  had  anybody  to 
keep  him  company  there.  And  the  presence  of  super- 
natural intruders,  in  the  shape  of  gods  and  saints,  devils 
and  demons,  such  as  the  practicer's  own  imagination  ob- 
jectifies when  he  reaches  the  stage  of  visions  and  voices, 
is  no  more  desirable  than  the  presence  of  real  persons 
would  be,  since  they  equally  break  the  spell  of  his  soli- 
tude. He  should,  in  fact,  aim  to  have  no  social  existence 
at  all.  His  business  is  with  himself  and  nobody  else. 
Not  all  the  world  could  help  him  with  it  save  by  keeping 
away  from  him.  Alone  in  the  matrix  he  began  the  mak- 
ingof  himself,  and  alone  he  can  best  continue  that  process. 
Ethics  are  for  the  social  man  and  not  for  him.  Love  and 
sympathy,  hate  and  antipathy,  are  disturbing  emotions 
which,  if  allowed  play,  would  make  all  his  practice  vain. 
Care  for  the  well-being  of  family  or  neighborhood  is 
utterly  inconsistent  with  his  entirely  selfish  undertaking 
of  getting  to  his  very  self,  all  by  himself. 

Silence.  The  Chinese  sage  of  old  Taoism,  we  are  told, 
"  shut  his  mouth  and  made  his  instructions  consist  in 
silence."  In  monastic  communities  silence  in  a  measure 
serves  as  a  substitute  for  solitude,  keeping  the  members 
mentally  apart  though  bodily  congregated.  In  this  the 
Trappists  go  far  beyond  the  other  Christian  orders,  but 
all  of  them  practice  sitting  mute  as  a  mode  of  discipline 
and  worship;  it  is  a  condition  of  yoga  practice  with  the 
Buddhists  and  Mohammedans  as  well. 

Poverty.  Though  Christian  asceticism  seems  to  prize 
poverty  as  being  not  merely  a  condition  in  aid  of  quie- 
tude, but  also  as  a  form  of  penitential  misery,  its  real 
value  to  the  yogi  lies  in  the  detachment  it  effects  from 
worldly  interests.  A  substitute  for  it  is  moral  detach- 
ment, or  a  mental  habit  of  not  caring  for  wealth,  or 
any  of  the  enjoyments  it  brings,  by  force  of  which  the 


298  VOGA    IN   GENERAL. 

practicer  is  made  to  live  and  act,  feel  and  think  just  as 
he  would  if  actually  a  beggar,  which,  according  to  Jacob 
Boehme  and  some  others,  is  as  good  as  being  one,  though 
the  better  opinion  is  that  for  him  who  tramps  the  yoga 
path  real  beggary  is  a  surer  means  than  any  imitation  of 
it,  for  getting  left  alone. 

Detachment,  as  has  been  seen,  is  much  insisted  on  in 
those  works  on  yoga  that  give  details  concerning  methods. 
It  signifies  renunciation,  not  merely  of  earthly  goods, 
but  of  whatever  can  attach  to  earthly  life.  Complete 
detachment  in  fact  constitutes  that  state  of  equanimity 
to  reach  which,  according  to  Boethius,  "  one  must  drive 
away  joy  and  hope  and  grief  and  fear;"  and  which  when 
attained,  according  to  Plotinus,  exempts  from  all  the 
pangs  of  sympathy.  It  was  the  principle  of  stoicism, 
and  appears  to  have  incarnated  in  the  peaceable  but  law- 
less, good  but  godless,  Eskimo  race. 

Disagreeable  surroundings  have  been  considered  proper 
conditions  by  Christian  ascetics,  but  not  by  Hindu  Yogis, 
whose  manuals  recommend  comfortable  homes  with 
pleasant  scenery,  and  who  when  they  practice,  instead 
of  the  kneeling  posture  of  a  slave,  take  the  easier  and 
more  dignified  one  proper  for  him  who  in  his  own  home 
awaits  to  receive  as  his  equal  the  God  of  the  Universe. 

Methods. 

First  and  before  all  others  is  concentration.  Solitude, 
silence,  poverty  and  detachment,  have  their  value  only  in 
so  far  as  they  are  favoring  conditions  to  concentration, 
the  meaning  and  importance  of  which  have  been  so  often 
set  forth  in  what  has  been  cited  from  the  teachings  of 
those  sages  who  left  us  full  expositions  of  their  methods, 
and  implied  in  what  we  otherwise  know  of  those  who  did 
not,  that  no  further  explanation  of  them  is  needed  now. 
In  some  of  the  quotations  the  words  "meditation"  and 
"contemplation"  are  made  to  stand  for  concentration 
in  a  way  that  is  confusing.     Both  mean  concentration, 


YOGA    IN  GENERAL.  299 

but  properly  applied  each  means  a  different  stage  of  it; 
at  least  so  John  of  the  Cross,  Molinos  and  Guillaume 
Postel  define  them.  But  it  is  well  to  repeat  here,  what 
the  quotations  abundantly  prove,  that  it  is  the  concen- 
tration that  does  the  work  and  not  the  thing  concentrated 
on.  All  attempts  to  teach  either  philosophy  or  religion 
by  means  of  yoga  are  attempts  to  pervert  it,  whether  the 
point  held  up  for  the  mind  to  fix  itself  on  be,  as  Sanka- 
racharya  recommends,  "This  is  not  me,"  or  as  Postel 
suggests,  "The  infinite  wickedness  of  man."  To  set 
out  on  the  path  with  expectation  that  it  will  conduct  you 
to  absolute  truth,  and  that  that  truth  is  formulated  in 
the  Sankhya  philosophy,  which  you  are  already  instructed 
in  so  far  as  mere  instruction  can  go,  is  to  ensure  that  at 
the  end  a  "  spiritual  impression  "  will  confirm  both  pre- 
conceptions, and  that  what  you  begun  by  believing  in 
with  your  outer  reason  you  will  end  by  knowing,  or 
*' realizing, "  as  it  is  called,  with  your  inmost  sense  of 
knowledge — or  feeling  sure  you  do  so.  Yoga  thus  prac- 
ticed may  yield  all  other  yoga  results,  but  it  will  be  with 
the  disturbing  addition  of  a  fixed  belief,  proved  in  no 
better  way  than  the  fixed  beliefs  of  visionaries  usually 
are. 

"All  life  is  thought,  all  beings  are  contemplations," 
said  Plotinus;  and  again,  "Since  Nature  is  not  an 
action,  she  is  a  contemplation."  The  Greeks  practiced 
concentration  in  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  and  believed 
that  by  it  a  soul  could  redeem  itself  from  hades.  The 
Buddhists  say  of  their  creative  God:  "From  his  tapas 
(meditation)  the  universe  was  produced  by  him."  An 
ancient  Chinese  author  boasts  of  his  people's  superior 
"power  of  concentration";  and  everywhere  in  the  lit- 
erature of  old  magic  we  come  upon  the  word  or  its  equiv- 
alent, as  expressing  both  the  method  of  the  gods  in 
creating  and  ruling  the  world  and  those  of  men  develop- 
ing themselves  as  magicians,  and  as  such  rivalling  those 
same  gods  in  doing  work  of  like  sort  with  theirs.   When, 


300  YOGA    IN-  GENERAL. 

a  few  years  ago,  magical  healing  under  its  various  names 
made  its  appearance  in  America,  I  found  it  easier  to  be- 
lieve in  its  good  results  than  to  understand  its  methods, 
even  after  reading  a  large  bookful  of  expositions  of 
them  and  taking  four  courses  of  lessons  from  different 
instructors.  Each  of  these  taught  that  it  was  the  recog- 
nition of  certain  truths  by  the  patient  as  well  as  the 
healer  that  effected  the  cure — but  this  only  on  condition 
that  those  truths  were  understood  and  realized.  I  do 
not  think  that  any  sick  or  well  person  was  ever  able  to 
do  this,  yet  still  the  healing  went  on.  A  year  of  spec- 
ulation brought  me  to  the  conclusion  that  a  certain 
mental  attitude,  such  as  the  thinking  out  of  abstruse 
problems  or  trying  to  think  out  incomprehensible  ones 
involves,  tended  to  induce  in  the  thinker  a  magical  heal- 
ing power.  Here  I  rested  during,  perhaps,  another  year, 
but  at  length  was  able  to  take  one  step  further,  and 
decide  that  the  attitude  in  question  consisted  in  the 
arrestation  of  thought.  Years  later  I  was  confirmed  in 
this  by  consulting  Hindu  works  on  yoga.  But  how  does 
stopping  his  thinking  make  a  yoga  of  a  man? 

As  all  know,  every  thought  is  an  expenditure  of  the 
mysterious  force  whose  inflow,  whether  from  a  spiritual 
or  material  source  it  matters  not,  constitutes  human 
life.  And  when  we  consider  how  small  an  expenditure 
of  thought  is  really  needed  to  carry  an  ordinary  mortal 
through  his  daily  duties,  and  yet,  what  a  constant  stream 
of  it  runs  through  his  head  from  dawn  to  dark,  we  see 
that  an  enormous  waste  of  life  is  the  ordinary  attendant 
on  living. 

The  same  force  that  first  produced  a  given  man,  and 
has  since  sustained  him  in  being,  for  some  reason  con- 
tinues to  superabundantly  flow  into  him,  the  superabun- 
dance, like  the  overflow  of  a  mill-dam,  running  out  of  him 
as  continuously  in,  for  the  most  part,  useless  ideation. 
Concentration,  in  such  measure  as  it  saves  this  waste  by 
stopping  the  thinking,  places  at  the  disposal  of  Nature 


YOGA    IN  GENERAL.  301 

for  whatever  other  work  on  the  man  she  has  in  hand, 
making  a  yogi  of  him,  for  instance,  an  extra  supply  of 
force;  thus,  to  arrest  thought  is  to  accumulate  force. 

The  Breathings. 

Breathing  gives  activity  to  the  mind  by  supplying 
arterialized  blood  to  its  organ,  the  brain,  and  holding 
the  breath,  by  diminishing  that  supply  retards  thinking, 
thus  accomplishing  by  physical  restraint  what  in  concen- 
tration is  accomplished  by  moral  restraint,  namely,  the 
saving  up  of  vital  force  by  curtailing  its  expenditure  in 
thought.  All  the  three  modes  of  breath  restraint  that 
have  been  described  show  by  their  effects  that  nature  puts 
this  saved-up  force  to  use  by  producing  within  the  body 
in  the  first  instance,  and  for  some  ulterior  purpose  which 
need  not  now  be  considered,  certain  vibrations,  tensions 
and  other  movements  of  the  same  sort  as  mental  concen- 
tration produces,  but  the  method  that  consists  in  quite 
emptying  the  lungs,  and  holding  them  empty  as  long  as 
may  be,  so  that  the  smallest  possible  supply  of  arterial- 
ized blood  reaches  the  brain,  produces  those  movements 
in  a  more  marked  degree  than  do  the  other  two,  one  of 
which  consists  in  holding  in  the  lungs  all  the  air  they  can 
be  made  to  receive  and  the  other  in  retaining  whatever 
quantity  happens  to  be  there  when  the  breathing  begins, 
indicatingthatthemoreabsolutetheexclusionofairis,  the 
more  so  is  the  arrest  of  thought,  if  we  may  measure  that 
arrest  by  the  movements  into  which  the  saved  force  is 
diverted.  Thisholding  out,  will  veryoften,  make  the  whole 
body  shake  or  sweat,  or  both.  But  the  other  two  methods 
go  further  than  suppress  thought ;  they  introduce  into  the 
body  whatever  elements  of  vitality  accompany  the  inflow- 
ing atmosphere — whatever  of  cosmic  force  from  without 
is  pressing  to  come  in  and  thereby  convert  itself  into 
vital  force,  opening  to  this  an  access  additional  to  what 
the  surface  of  the  body  affords.  Ordinary  breathing  does 
the  same,  it  is  true,  but  these  yoga  breathings  give  nature 


302  YOGA    IN  GENERAL. 

more  time  than  it  does  to  appropriate  the  influx  by  ten  to 
one.  In  performing  them  there  will  be  felt  a  peculiar 
tensive  fullness  of  the  whole  body  reaching  to  the  nails 
of  the  fingers  and  toes  and  even  the  roots  of  the  teeth. 
Says  Chuang-Tzu,  in  his  only  allusion  to  the  breathings, 
and  which  is  too  brief  to  qualify  the  statement  before 
made,  that  they  are  not  included  in  any  other  than  Hindu 
Yoga:  "Pure  men  draw  breath  from  their  heels" — an 
expression  that  recalls  one  of  Swatmaram's  sutras,  which 
reads:  "He  should  practice  Kumbhaka  until  he  feels 
that  prana  pervades  the  whole  of  his  body  from  the  head 
to  the  toe."  Whatever  may  be  the  nature  of  the  elements 
of  life  that  from  without  enter  the  human  body,  and 
whether  they  be  many  or  one,  it  has  always  been  believed 
that  something  so  enters,  and  pervades  that  organism. 
This  something  has  furnished  much  material  for  specula- 
tion. The  Chinese  give  it  the  all-inclusive  name  of  Tao, 
the  Hindus  call  it  Prana,  or  life-breath,  and  in  modern 
science  it  goes  incognito  as  vital  force.  But  here  the 
question  will  naturally  arise:  Why  do  not  the  ordinary 
ten  breaths  a  minute  let  in  as  much  or  more  of  the  vital 
force  as  one  long-drawn  breath  retained  for  a  whole  min- 
ute?* The  ordinary  breathing,  short  and  frequent,  cer- 
tainly suffices  to  supply  the  blood  with  oxygen.  Why 
not  also  to  supply  the  organism  with  whatever  else  it 
wants  that  comes  in  with  that  oxygen?  But  there  is  a 
difference  between  ten  quick  taps  and  one  slow  press- 
ure, between  ten  short  vibrations  and  one  long  one,  dif. 
ference  enough  to  make  of  one  thing  quite  another  thing, 
both  as  to  action  and  effect.  Whoever  tries  them  will 
know  that  the  yoga  breaths  do  in  fact  produce  effects 
which  ordinary  ones  do  not,  and  be  apt  to  presume  that 
this  is  because  the  long  ones  give  more  time  than  the 

*  I  do  not  pretend  here  to  say  that  people  in  general  may  safely  retain 
their  breath  during  a  whole  minute,  though  many  can  for  a  much  longer 
time.  The  Hindu  teachers  who  have  come  to  America  advise  great 
caution  in  this  respect. 


YOGA    IN  GENERAL.  803 

short  ones  do  for  the  inflowing  force  to  act,  as  impart- 
ing, and  the  organism,  as  receiver,  to  appropriate.  The 
beneficial  effects  of  the  yoga  breathings  seem  evident 
enough,  and  there  is  no  a  priori  reason  why  they  should 
not  be  what  they  seem.  The  Hindus  carry  their  belief 
in  it  so  far  as  in  certain  cases  to  blow  into  the  bladder 
through  a  kind  of  catheter.  Just  as  the  body  of  him  who 
bathes  in  the  ocean  has  the  benefit  of  every  medicament 
water  can  dissolve  and  it  receive,  the  same  body  has  the 
benefit  of  every  force  of  nature  that  can  come  in  with  the 
breath,  and  remain  long  enough  to  be  taken  up. 

Sound.  In  connection  with  the  breathings  certain 
sounds  are  directed  to  be  made,  namely,  by  "putting the 
tongue  between  the  lips  and  drawing  the  breath  in  the 
mouth  with  a  hissing  sound " — by  "protruding the  tongue 
a  little  way  beyond  the  lips  and  then  inhaling" — by 
"filling  in  the  air  rapidly,  making  the  sound  of  a  male 
bee,  and  again  exhaling  it  make  the  sound  of  a  female 
bee  humming." 

One  effect  of  making  these  sounds  in  the  way  described 
is,  of  course,  the  retardation  of  the  inflow  or  outflow  of 
the  breath,  and  so  of  the  thinking  process,  but  we  are  led 
to  look  for  a  directly  exerted  magical  action  of  the  sounds 
themselves  as  such,  when  we  consider  how  important  a 
part  music  has  played  in  ancient  magic,  and  this  notwith- 
standing that  in  the  synopsis  that  has  been  given  of 
Hindu  Yoga,  all  said  about  musical  sounds  is  comprised 
in  what  has  just  been  quoted,  in  what  is  found  in  the  di- 
rections for  practicing  Laya  Yoga,  and  in  Sabhatapy's 
directions  that  in  making  its  divine  pilgrimage  through 
the  body,  the  mind  should  at  certain  points  sing  a  "man- 
tram  "  to  the  spirit  there  ruling.  The  priests  of  Egypt 
insisted  on  the  utmost  exactness  in  the  temple  chants. 
The  Hebrew  prophet  Elisha  called  for  music  to  tune  his 
soul  to  prophesy.  David  with  his  harp  charmed  away 
the  evil  spirit  sent  by  Jehovah  to  afflict  Saul.  Plato, 
when  he  describes  the  four  manias  or  ecstatic  states  "  by 


804  YOGA    IN  GENERAL. 

which  the  soul  could  be  led  back  to  its  pristine  felicity," 
gives  the  musical  mania  the  first  place.  Turning  to 
Akkadian  magic  we  find  that  though  concentration  is  im- 
plied in  the  fact  that  magical  powers  were  acquired,  yet 
that  when  these  powers  were  put  in  operation  it  was 
nearly  always  by  means  of  incantation.  The  Kalevala 
shows  that  the  Finnic  gods  and  magicians  alike  did  their 
work  chiefly  by  singing.  The  gnostics  worked,  says 
Plotinus,  "by  enchantment,  charms,  cries,  aspirations, 
whistling," — but  to  return  to  Hindu  methods: 

The  Laya  Yoga  consists  wholly  in  listening  to  certain 
sounds  that  can  be  heard  within  the  practicer's  body 
when  the  ears  are  closed,  and  which  are  collectively 
termed  "The  Nada."  "In  the  beginning  they  resemble 
those  of  the  ocean,  the  clouds,  the  kettle-drum,  and 
zazara  (a  sort  of  drum-cymbal)  ;  in  the  middle  those 
arising  from  the  mardala,  the  conch,  the  bell  and  the 
horn.  In  the  end  those  of  the  tinkling  bells,  the  flutes, 
the  vina  and  the  bees.  Thus  are  heard  the  various  sounds 
from  the  middle  of  the  body."  The  results  of  this  Laya 
practice  are  very  prompt  in  coming,  according  to  Swatma- 
ram,  who  says  that  "  Great  yogis  who  practice  Samadhi 
through  concentration  on  Nada,  experience  a  joy  in  their 
hearts  that  surpasses  all  description."  Certainly  the 
American  experiences  tend  to  prove  that  the  sounds  pro- 
duced in  breathing  have  power  over  the  bodily  sensa- 
tions, aside  from  the  part  they  play  in  restraining  the 
outgoing  breath.  They  seem  to  bring  the  bodily  vibra- 
tions into  unison  with  themselves  and  also  to  strengthen 
them.  The  American  sounds  answer  very  well  to  the 
description  just  given  of  the  Nada. 

Dancing  is  in  all  magic  except  Christian.  Both  it  and 
music  are  well  adapted  to  what  may  be  termed  congre- 
gational practice,  where  many  take  part.  To  be  sure. 
King  David  was  not  a  pretty  sight  when  he  performed 
before  the  Ark,  anymore  than  a  row  of  shaking  Quakers 
are,  but  none  will  deny  that  such  ballet  troupes  as  have 


YOGA    IN   GENERAL.  305 

in  all  times  been  attached  to  pagan  temples  must  have 
"  drawn  "  with  a  force  not  to  be  despised.  When  Wesley 
introduced  lively  tunes  into  Methodist  worship,  he  said 
it  was  because  he  saw  no  reason  for  letting  Satan  have 
all  the  good  music.  Wesley's  innovation  is  extending, 
but  as  yet  no  movement  has  been  made  to  appropriate 
for  the  service  of  the  Christian  sanctuary  the  allurement 
that  lies  in  beautiful  form  in  graceful  movement,  and 
these  still  remain  the  monopoly  of  the  Christian  devil  and 
heathen  gods. 

Devotion.  Intense  religious  anxiety,  glad  religious 
hopes  and  loving  yearnings  cultivated  in  every  Christian 
church  compel  concentration  of  mind.  But  the  hum- 
drum litanies,  droning  chants,  and  soporific  incense,  the 
tiresome  genuflexions,  bead-telling,  repetition  of  aves  and 
paters,  the  fixing  of  the  gaze  on  the  crucifix,  turning  of 
the  eyes  upward  just  as  in  Hindu  yoga  practice,  and  long 
and  short  retreats,  such  as  the  Church  of  Rome  has  de- 
vised, prove  that  better  than  the  others  she  knows  the 
value  of  magic  as  a  support  to  faith. 

Fasting  is  commonly  thought  to  help  the  ascetic  to  be 
chaste,  by  weakening  his  body  and  thereby  its  passions, 
but  it  is  hard  to  see  the  advantage  of  rousing  up  one  vio- 
lent craving,  which  hunger  is,  to  put  down  another  no 
more  violent,  nor  how,  since  yoga  consists  in  perfecting 
the  man  in  all  his  parts,  fasting  severe  enough  to  impair 
health  can  be  deemed  good  practice.  Yet  occasional 
fasts,  for  special  purposes,  undergone  by  yogis  in  good 
condition,  may  be  supposed  to  accumulate  power  just  as 
arresting  thought  or  breath  does.  The  ever-flowing  cur- 
rent of  the  life  breath,  relieved  of  the  labor  of  digesting 
food,  is  set  free  for  yoga  uses.     So,  too,  with 

Vigils.  The  Christian  monastic  leaves  his  bed  and 
begins  his  vigil  about  two  o'clock  in  the  morning;  so  does 
the  Hindu,  according  to  "The  Science  of  Breath."  Now 
that  is  the  time  when  the  labor  of  digestion  having  been 
accomplished.   Nature  employs  her  forces  in  doing  her 


306  VOGA    IN  GENERAL. 

plastic  work,  that  is  to  say,  in  converting  the  fluids  she 
has  been  producing  from  the  food  into  solid  tissues  of  the 
body.  But  this  can  only  be  done  while  it  is  sleeping, 
and  so  it  is  that  by  waking  it  at  the  time  in  question  and 
holding  it  so  the  vital  force  is  saved  that  would  other- 
wise be  spent  in  body  building,  which  is  postponed  until 
the  vigil  is  ended.  For  other  reasons  midnight  is  the 
most  propitious  time  for  concentration.  It  is  then  that 
the  body  is  most  at  rest,  and  solitude  and  silence  bathe 
the  watcher  in  quietude. 

Tiresome  repetitions,  whether  devotional  or  not,  is 
good  practice.  And  in  the  number  of  these  imposed  on 
the  Hindu  Yogi  the  Romish  ritual  is  far  outgone.  Certain 
French  savants  of  the  present  time  who  have  waded  into 
magic  as  far  as  what,  to  hide  their  shame,  they  have 
named  hypnotism,  have  found  out  the  value  of  tiresome 
repetition,  and  one  of  them  has  invented  a  mechanical 
means  to  it  in  the  shape  of  a  whirligig,  which,  being 
intently  looked  at  as  it  whirls,  brings  on  the  hypnotic 
state,  by  fatiguing  the  looker's  eyes,  as  is  supposed. 
The  tiresome  method,  instead  of  restraining  the  wasteful 
flow  of  thought  as  concentration  does,  by  holding  the 
mind  still,  puts  it  to  sleep.  Stupefaction  which  falls  short 
of  sleep  is  considered  a  good  result  and  to  indicate  hope- 
ful progress  on  the  path,  no  less  by  Hindu  Swatmaram's 
commentator  than  by  Spanish  John  of  the  Cross;  and 
both  give  warning  that  it  will  increase  till  it  reaches  a 
stage  wherein  the  yogi  becomes  incapable  of  taking  care 
of  himself,  or  performing  the  necessary  duties  of  life 
without  guidance,  which  the  Hindu  says  may  be  afforded 
by  another  man,  but,  according  to  the  Christian,  is  given 
in  a  miraculous  way  by  God  himself,  as  before  stated,  and 
there  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  moderate  doles  of  it 
allowed  by  the  Catholic  Church  to  its  children  is  whole- 
some and  comforting,  and  being  by  the  children  supposed 
to  come  from  the  breast  of  their  spiritual  mother,  helps 
confirm  their  faith  in  her  teachings,  just  as  the  whirling 


YOGA    IN  GENERAL.  307 

crescent  or  cluster  of  mirrors  arouses  the  faith  of  Dr. 
Luy's  patients  in  the  truth  of  his  suggestions  while  lull- 
ing them  to  quietude  and  slumber.  Swatmaram  com- 
mends the  practice  of  the  murcha  Kumbhalca  for  the 
reason  that,  as  he  says:  "It  reduces  the  mind  to  a  state 
of  stupor  and  gives  pleasure." 

Spells.  The  reliance  which  has  been  had  in  all  systems 
of  magic  on  the  one  word  spell,  such  as  the  Egyptian 
*'Ammon,"  the  Jewish  *'Jah-Veh"  and  the  Hindu  "Om." 
is  hard  to  comprehend.  Yet  so  important  was  it  esteemed 
by  the  founders  of  Christianity  that  the  new  religion 
should  not  be  behind  the  old  ones  in  this  respect  that 
they  incarnated  a  spell  referred  to  as  "the  word,"  and 
put  it  into  their  Trinity.  Longer  formulas,  such  as 
adjurations  to  depart  addressed  to  the  devil,  and  longer 
still,  such  as  were  the  incantations  of  Egyptian  and  Chal- 
dean magic,  or  the  philosophical  statements  which  Chris- 
tian scientists  and  other  modern  healers  address  to  their 
patients  may  work  by  way  of  concentration  or  suggestion, 
or  by  force  of  their  logic  or  tiresomeness,  but  this  would 
not  account  for  any  single  word,  even  though  it  be  the 
name  of  a  god,  having  magical  power,  or  the  reputation 
of  it.  Yet  wonderful  stories  are  told  by  Hindus  of  the 
potency  of  their  word  Om.,  the  "Yoga  Vasishtha,"  de- 
voting fifty  pages  to  it,  and  conjuring  with  names  has 
always  been  common  with  magicians  of  all  degrees, 
whether  priestly  or  lay. 

Celibacy.  Notwithstanding  the  exceptions  heretofore 
noted,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  absolute  chastity  has 
always  been  considered  a  better  method  than  deviation 
from  it  to  any  degree,  and  in  most  systems,  as  shown  by 
the  quotations  heretofore  given,  has  been  rigorously  in- 
sisted on.  The  Christian  Church  may  have  had  many 
good  reasons  for  imposing  celibacy  on  her  priesthood, 
but  none  could  have  been  more  cogent  than  its  value, 
made  known  by  the  experiences  of  the  monks  of  the  desert 
and  cloister,  as  a  condition  to  magical  practice.      Not 


308  YOGA    IN   GENERAL. 

only  is  the  existence  of  a  family  inconsistent  with  soli- 
tude, silence,  inaction  and  quietude,  but  the  calling  one 
into  existence  involves  a  drain  on  vital  force,  that  is,  on 
magical  force.  The  chastity  of  the  yogi  is  better  named 
diversion  than  suppression,  and  to  resort  to  mutilation, 
as  the  Bible  says  some  have  done  for  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven's  sake,  would  be  exceeding  bad  practice,  and  the 
fact  that  no  yoga  scripture  that  has  been  quoted  names 
or  sanctions  it  tends  to  prove  that,  in  the  judgment  of 
the  wise  authors  of  them,  the  organs  concerned  have 
functions  to  perform  even  in  the  organism  of  a  celibate. 
Of  course,  emasculation  would  save  a  deal  of  self-restraint, 
and,  of  course,  without  it  there  will  be  a  disturbance;  for 
years  the  practicer  may  have  to  battle  with  beautiful 
devils,  as  Saint  Anthony  did,  but,  soon  or  late,  the  yogis 
say,  the  compensation  will  come,  and  all  will  be  peace. 

Penance.  Self-torment  as  a  magical  method  must  be 
in  some  way  efficacious,  for  it  has  place  in  all  systems, 
the  Christian  Church,  as  I  have  said,  putting  it  to  the 
additional  use  of  forestalling  punishment  forsin.  Apuleius, 
who  wrote  in  the  second  century  A.D.,  in  his  "  Golden 
Ass,"  describes  a  scourging,  which  for  a  very  base,  but 
yet  purely  magical  purpose,  a  devotee  of  Isis  gave  him- 
self thus:  "Seizing,  therefore,  a  whip,  which  it  is  usual 
for  these  half  men  to  carry  with  them,  and  which  con- 
sisted of  twisted  woolen  fillets,  hanging  down  in  long 
fringes,  and  is  chequered  with  many  pastern  joints  of 
sheep,  he  gave  himself  with  it  many  lashes,  which  were 
severe  on  account  of  the  numerous  knots  of  the  whip, 
being  fortified  with  wonderful  firmness  against  the  pain 
of  the  blows."  This  man  and  his  companions,  who  went 
through  other  like  performances,  and  whom  Apuleius 
termed  "filthy  catamites,"  wound  up  with  a  feast  pro- 
cured with  the  pence  flung  at  them  by  the  attendant 
crowd,  which  closed  in  a  disgusting  orgy.  The  Christian 
flagellants,  so  numerous  in  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries,  though  following  the  pagan  method, 


YOGA    IN  GENERAL.  309 

set  Up  for  themselves  as  object  the  very  opposite  result 
of  maintaining  their  chastity  by  mortifying  the  flesh, 
but,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  these  pious  persons,  who  also 
went  about  the  country  whipping  themselves  on  their 
bare  haunches  for  the  edification  of  the  crowd,  arrived 
in  so  many  cases  at  a  very  pagan  result  that  the  Church, 
which  had  at  first  favored  the  movement  as  being  in  the 
interest  of  religion,  had  to  take  measures  to  arrest  it.  It 
has  by  no  means  died  out,  however,  nor  ceased  to  be 
honored  and  encouraged  by  the  applause  of  that  very  large 
body  of  good  Catholics  who,  like  the  throng  that  followed 
the  flagellating  Greek  catamites,  are  able  to  enjoy  the 
sufferings  of  other  people.  Scene,  the  city  of  Philadel- 
phia; time,  the  culmination  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
The  late  Catholic  bishop  of  that  city,  the  already  beati- 
fied John  Neuman,  destined  in  due  time  to  be  Saint  John, 
namesake  and  imitator  of  him  of  the  Cross,  was  accus- 
tomed to  whip  himself,  it  is  said,  in  true  flagellant  fashion. 
His  scourge,  it  is  true,  had  but  one  lash,  but  the  principle 
of  it  was  the  same  as  that  of  those  used  by  the  catamite 
Apuleius  mentions,  being  long  and  weighted  at  the  end, 
so  that  it  could  be  wielded  over  the  shoulder  and  made 
to  reach  the  objective  point  of  attack,  and  having  a  sharp 
nail  at  the  end,  which  made  a  Russian  knout  of  it,  was 
really  a  severer  instrument  than  the  woolen  cat-o'-nine- 
tails of  the  pagan  flagellants.  Our  John  of  Philadelphia 
seems  to  have  been  a  close  follower  of  John  of  the  Cross 
in  other  respects.  He  not  only  wore  the  same  kind  of 
barbed  girdle  that  the  other  did,  but  had  the  same  dis- 
position to  self-abasement.  He  slept  on  a  plank,  kept 
himself  poor  by  giving  away  whatever  he  had  to  give,  and, 
when  notified  by  his  Archbishop  that  he  was  to  be  made 
bishop,  fell  on  his  knees  and  with  tears  in  his  eyes  begged 
the  latter  not  to  appoint  one  so  unworthy  as  himself. 
Like  his  exemplar,  too,  he  ruined  his  health  and  short- 
ened his  life  by  austerities. 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

RESULTS  OF  PRACTICE  AND  INDICATIONS  OF  PROGRESS. 

Vibrations. 

The  conditions  being  given  and  the  methods  prac- 
ticed, the  first  effects  perceived,  so  far  as  the  Amer- 
ican experiences  have  made  known  the  order  of  their 
coming,  are  vibrations,  resembling  those  of  an  electric  or 
magnetic  current,  which,  unless  mentally  directed  else- 
where, begin  in  the  feet  and  thence  mount  by  gradations 
upward  and  spread  over  the  whole  body,  tarrying  on  the 
way  at  each  of  the  great  nerve-centres  and  reaching  at 
last  a  point  at  the  top  of  the  head,  called  by  the  Hindus 
the  Brahmandra,  occupying  in  their  course  a  measure  of 
time  varying  from  a  few  days  to  many  years,  according 
to  the  receptivity  and  diligence  of  the  practicer.  At 
first  amounting  to  merely  a  gentle  prickling  of  the  sur- 
face, these  vibrations  attain  to  different  degrees  of  fine- 
ness and  emphasis,  steadily  increasing  in  force  and  pleas- 
antness from  the  time  when  they  start  to  ascend  from 
the  feet  upward,  with  sensations  a  Hindu  book  describes 
as  of  "Brahman  creeping  up  the  legs,"  until  they  invade 
the  profundity  of  the  nerves  and  thrill  the  whole  organ- 
ism with  what  John  of  the  Cross  calls  "  touches  of  God," 
and  describes  as  being  so  sweet  that  only  one  of  them 
would  compensate  for  a  lifetime  of  woe.  This  to  the  be- 
ginner is  a  far-off  result,  but  once  the  earliest  prickling 
is  felt,  he  may  be  sure  the  "current  of  the  life-breath" 
has  been  turned  on,  and  that  from  thence  onward,  con- 
ditions being  maintained  and  practice  kept  up,  will  con- 
tinually labor  to  carry  him  forward  toward  yoga.     Out  of 


INDICA  riONS  OF  PROGRESS.  311 

the  vibrations  come  certain  tonic  pressures  and  tensions, 
and  out  of  them,  in  seemingly  well-ordered  sequence,  the 
whole  train  of  phenomena  between  here  and  there,  ex- 
tending even  unto  ultimate  Samadhi. 

The  first  and  usually  the  very  prompt  results  after  the 
vibrations  begin,  especially  if  these  are  aided  by  the  breath- 
ings, are  improved  health  and  strength,  showing  forth 
in  a  more  symmetrical  shape,  a  more  graceful  carriage, 
a  smoother  and  livelier  skin,  often  puffed  out,  as  it  were, 
and  tinged  with  a  rosy  hue,  more  expressive  and  brighter 
eyes,  and  sometime  a  partial  restoration  of  gray  hair  to 
its  original  color,  or  effacement  of  wrinkles.  Withal,  the 
appetite  for  food  is  diminished  and  the  senses  sharpened. 
Following  in  the  train  of  these,  the  yoga  literature,  espe- 
cially that  of  primitive  times,  promises,  and  with  emphasis, 
shall  come  other  signs  of  rejuvenescence,  a  promise  which 
some  American  experiences  are  thought  to  justify,  as 
also  those  may  which  have  already  been  told  concerning 
Postel,  who,  if  he  is  to  be  believed,  saw  a  woman  of 
fifty  and  upwards,  look  fifteen,  and  if  his  contemporaries 
are  to  be  believed,  after  he  had  got  to  be  old,  gray  and 
wrinkled,  was  well  started  on  his  way  backward  toward 
his  youth  when  the  Church  laid  her  hand  on  him.  It  can- 
not be  without  some  foundation  that  beliefs  have  always 
prevailed  in  the  possibility  of  an  indefinitely  long  exten- 
sion of  earthly  life,  and  even  theories,  dreams  and  hopes 
of  earthly  immortality.  For  instance,  Lao-Tsee  claimed 
to  have  lived  a  thousand  years,  and  his  disciple,  Chuang- 
Tzu  called  himself  two  hundred  older.  The  Cumsean  Sibyl 
was  supposed  to  have  been  a  thousand  years  old  when  she 
died,  or  disappeared.  Roger  Bacon  claimed  that  alchemy 
"could  prolong  life  to  several  centuries."  The  Bible 
gives  the  ages  of  the  antediluvian  patriarchs  in  numbers 
less  round  than  these,  but  more  plausible.  And  the 
many  great  Hindu  Siddhas,  of  whom  Swatmaram  names 
thirty-six,  who,  as  he  says,  "still  live  and  move  about 
the  world,"  if  his  words  be  true  of  them  at  the  present 


312  RESULTS  OF  PRACTICE   AND 

time,  must  be  set  down  as  immortal  enough  for  all  pres- 
ent purposes. 

As  he  goes  on,  each  of  the  practicer's  senses  will  be 
visited  by  objectified  subjective  experiences,  nowise  less 
vivid  than  if  supported  by  objective  realities.  He  will 
see  lights,  colors  and  forms,  hear  speech  and  music,  smell 
odors,  taste  food  and  touch  and  feel  touches.  Nature 
has  taken  control  of  the  channels  of  his  senses,  and  he  is 
subject  to  revelations,  which,  according  to  his  precon- 
ceptions, will  come  from  gods  or  saints,  demons  or  devils — 
in  receiving  which,  however,  as  John  of  the  Cross  seems 
to  have  found  out,  he  is  only  talking  to  himself.  Here 
is  where  religions  are  made  and  repaired.  In  America 
we  are  not  without  proof  in  confirmation  of  what  the  his- 
tory of  mysticism  in  other  countries  contains  respecting 
these  illusions.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  an  embarrassing 
richness  of  demonstration  that  as  illusions  they  are  reali- 
ties. One  person  whom  I  know  is  haunted  with  an  odor 
of  violets,  another  is  entertained  with  exquisite  music, 
etc,  and  vocal  messages  seem  getting  to  be  as  common 
and  cheap  as  chips. 

Much  less  common,  but  still  common  enough  to  prove 
themselves,  and  here  and  now,  too,  are  such  purely 
physical  and  objective  effects  as  the  levitation  of  the 
practicer's  body,  the  exhalation  from  it  of  agreeable 
odors  and  the  radiation  from  it  of  lights.  The  com- 
paratively recent  floating  in  and  out  of  the  window  of 
Home,  better  authenticated  than  the  ascent  to  the  sky 
of  Elijah,  or  the  lifting  up  to  the  ceiling  of  John  of 
the  Cross  and  Theresa,  helps  us  to  believe  in  the  possi- 
bility of  overcoming  gravitation,  as,  indeed,  should  every 
case  where  a  ponderable  object  is  raised  so  much  as  an 
inch  from  its  position.  But  for  one  dollar  admittance 
persons  and  things  can  now  be  seen  hanging  as  high  in 
the  air  as  the  monk  and  nun  did.  In  like  manner  the 
stories  of  the  "odor  of  sanctity,"  said  to  have  been  so 
pungent  about  the  disinterred  body  of  the  same  monk  as 


INDICATIONS   OF  PROGRESS.  313 

to  have  identified  it  nine  months  after  burial,  and  to  have 
emanated  from  the  living  bodies  of  many  other  saints, 
are  rendered  credible  by  the  accounts  we  have  of  the 
same  kind  of  manifestations  occurring  now,  and  illumi- 
nated features  and  rings  of  light  like  those  which  crown 
the  idols  of  the  Virgin  Mary  and  the  Japanese  "Queen 
of  Heaven,"  and  other  divinities  of  earlier  date  than 
either,  have  of  late  become  so  familiar  as  to  justify  belief 
that  they  were  founded  on  fact,  as  also  the  account  we 
have  of  the  transfiguration  on  Mount  Tabor,  where  the 
face  of  Jesus  "shone  like  the  sun  and  his  garments  be- 
came white  as  light."  All  these  phenomena  must  be 
expected  to  occur  as  effects  of  yoga  practice  if  long 
enough  continued. 

What  has  been  said  in  the  account  heretofore  given  of 
the  American  experiences  concerning  the  movements, 
namely,  that  at  each  recurrence  of  them  the  same  serial 
order  was  observed  as  that  by  which  one  by  one  they 
originally  arose,  may  also  be  affirmed  of  the  vibrations  and 
other  sensations,  such  as  those  of  pressure  and  tension. 
At  least  a  habit  of  Nature  to  go  back  to  the  beginning  each 
time  she  resumes  her  left-off  work,  as  if  to  get  her  hand 
in,  and  at  the  same  time  hold  on  to  progress  already 
gained,  is  indicated  by  some  experiences  that  have  come 
under  my  observation,  and  which  recall  what  Haeckel 
says  in  his  "Evolution  of  Man"  concerning  Nature's  mode 
of  working  the  series  of  transformations  undergone  by  the 
foetus  in  the  womb,  in  which  we  have  "a  complete  pic- 
ture of  the  remarkable  series  of  forms  through  which  the 
animal  ancestors  of  the  human  race  have  passed  from  the 
beginning  of  organic  creation  to  the  first  appearance  of 
man."  Thus,  for  instance,  a  pressure  first  felt  on  the 
nerve-centre  at  the  ankle,  and  that  after  being  felt  there 
and  only  there  for  months,  ascended  to  the  nerve-centre 
at  the  knee,  whence,  after  tarrying,  perhaps,  as  long,  it 
went  up  to  the  groins,  and  so  on  till  the  top  of  the  head 
was  reached,   will,    in    most   every   instance,   begin    its 


314  RESULTS   OF  PRACTICE  AND 

course  at  the  ankle  each  time  any  part  above  there  is  to 
be  touched. 

The  activities  set  up  in  the  practicer's  organism,  in 
due  time  become  more  or  less  habitual,  or  automatic, 
and  probably  also  unconscious;  the  recognition  of  which 
by  Christian  mystical  writers  is  found  in  their  use  of  such 
terms  as  "secret  meditation,"  "unconscious  medita- 
tion," "virtual  and  acquired  contemplation,"  "habit 
of  union,"  "habit  of  internal  recollection,"  "virtual 
prayer,"  as  if  the  organism  after  a  while  become  re- 
ceptive enough  to  the  new  force  to  admit  and  re-act  to 
it  as  of  its  own  motion — for  a  time  at  least — as  if  medi- 
tation originated  movements,  which  afterwards  go  on 
of  themselves,  taking  advantage  of  every  moment  of 
mental  quietude  to  do  so.  For  instance,  the  practicer 
will,  when  in  a  calm  state  of  mind  he  listens  to  a  con- 
versation, or  to  music,  or  reads  a  book  with  close  atten- 
tion, feel  the  vibrations,  etc.,  at  their  accustomed  work, 
giving  him  the  comfort  of  knowing  he  is  not  losing  time. 
(One  of  the  recognized  methods  of  Hindu  Yoga  practice 
is  Dharana^  which  means  the  steadying  of  the  mind  by 
study.)  It  was  a  similar  manifestation  of  the  uninvoked 
yoga  principle  that  interrupted  the  conversation  of  John 
of  the  Cross  and  Theresa  in  the  convent  parlor,  and 
raised  them  both  to  the  ceiling,  and  that  at  another  time 
compelled  the  monk  to  grasp  the  bars  of  the  grating  to 
hold  himself  down  to  earth,  and  made  him  to  fear  to  let 
his  mind  "dwell  on  anything"  lest  there  should  be  a 
scene,  and  that  caused  in  other  pious  men  sensations  and 
movements  so  improper  as  to  compel  them  to  pray  less 
often,  or  not  at  all.  But  with  the  disciples  of  Molinos, 
who  did  not  push  things  so  far,  such  habitual  working  of 
the  principle  in  question  was  all-important,  since  it  en- 
abled them  to  attend  to  the  ordinary  duties  of  life,  and 
yet  make  their  way  towards  sanctity.  And  the  beautiful 
results  the  Quietists  thus  obtained  should  be  most  encour- 
aging to  those  who  in  the  agitating  conditions  that  pre- 


INDICATIONS  OF  PROGRESS.  315 

vail  in  Christian  countries  may  undertake  yoga  practice. 
Thus  might  be  obtained,  without  seclusion  in  any  clois- 
tered prison  or  enclosure  within  any  church  pale,  the 
development  of  all  the  wealth  of  magical  power. 

But  if  it  be  true,  as  is  commonly  thought,  that  the 
multitude  really  desire  to  be  enclosed  within  some  kind 
of  religious  pale,  then  this  principle  of  automatic  yoga 
movement  is  of  great  importance,  since  it  renders  practi- 
cable the  embodying  of  Quietistic  magic  into  the  new 
Christianity  which  religious  experts  are  now  trying  to 
construct  out  of  what  is  left  of  the  old,  a  thing  that 
should  by  all  means  be  done,  even  if  only  for  weaning 
purposes. 

The  exhibition  of  miracles  possible  only  to  a  yogi  of 
some  degree,  and  the  inner  sensations  of  a  comforting 
kind  that  yoga  practice  causes,  have  been  the  indispen- 
sable supports  of  every  religion  that  has  been  able  to 
stand  in  times  past;  and  religion  builders  who  do  not 
know  that  it  must  always  be  so  have  not  learned  their 
trade.     All  revelations,  true  or  false,  testifying  in  favor 
of  this  or  that  faith,  have  been  spoken  by  the  mouths,  or 
written  by  the  pens  of  the  prophets,  that  is,  of  magicians, 
and  been  accepted  as  true,  because  the  revealers  were 
also  wonder  workers.     Faith,  which  enables  men,  if  not 
to  move  mountains,  at  least  to  swallow  mountainous  in- 
credibilities, is  a  state  of  true  magical  ecstasy  just  as  is 
the  "sweetness  of  the  flesh  "  which  Thomas  a  Kempis 
calls  it,  but  others  call  the  love  of  God,  and  in  fine  so 
are  all  those  pleasant  experiences  which  concentration  in 
prayer  can  bring  to  the  afflicted,  known  as  religious  con- 
solation.    It  is  claimed  that  even  Calvinists  can  feel  this. 
Bliss.     Into  a  state  of  enjoyment  worthy  of  this  name 
the  vibrations  ultimately  run.    Rama  Pashad  says:  "And 
drawn  by  the  taste  of  bliss   (ananda)  the  mind  sets  itself 
to  working  out  with  greater  and  greater  zeal  the  process 
*  of  its  evolution."     In  Swatmaram's  book  the  practicer  is 
repeatedly  encouraged  to  persevere  by  the  promise  of 


316  RESULTS  OF  PRACTICE  AND 

bliss,  which  is  there  characterized  as  "an  undefinable 
joy; "  as  "  the  indescribable  state  of  Laya  which  can  be 
experienced  by  the  yogi  alone."  Of  two  certain  Mudras 
it  says:  "Though  apparently  differing  in  the  position  of 
the  eyes  and  places  to  which  the  attention  or  mind  is 
directed,  they  are  one  in  their  result.  Both  of  them 
bring  about  a  state  of  bliss."  Again  it  declares  that 
when  the  mind  becomes  one  with  the  object  concentrated 
on:  "Let  there  be  Mukti  or  not,  here  is  uninterrupted 
bliss, "  and  again,  '  *  The  great  yogis  who  practice  Samadhi 
through  the  concentration  on  the  Nada  (sounds  heard  in 
the  body)  experience  a  joy  arising  in  their  hearts  that 
surpasses  all  description."  The  same  joy  was  referred 
to  by  the  twelve  thousand  and  more  wives  of  Krishna, 
when  they  lauded  him  for  his  complaisance  to  them  not- 
withstanding that,  being  a  god,  "he  had  all  joy  within 
himself."  John  of  the  Cross,  in  detailing  the  experiences 
of  spiritual  men,  says:  "Their  sense  of  taste  is  also 
deliciously  affected;  and  that  of  the  touch  so  sweetly 
caressed  at  times  the  bones  and  marrow  exult  and  rejoice, 
bathed  as  it  were  in  joy."  The  Neoplatonists  claimed 
that  by  contemplation  they  arrived  at  a  realization  not 
only  of  absolute  truth,  but  of  absolute  blessedness  also. 
Of  the  witches  of  much  later  times  it  is  recorded 
"They  were  plunged  in  vague,  unspeakable  pleasure" — 
"They  enjoy  there  a  paradise  of  delight."  Nicholas 
Flamel,  the  alchemist,  says  in  his  book:  "The  proc- 
ess of  the  work  is  very  pleasing  to  nature."  That  is, 
to  the  body.  (And  another  alchemistic  work  says  the 
students  of  magic  were  encouraged  to  persevere  by 
the  bodily  pleasure  that  they  derived  from  it.  It  should 
be  remembered  that  the  later  alchemists  declared  that 
their  art  was  a  personal  development — that  the  body  of 
the  individual  was  "modified  by  alchemy,"  as  Roger 
Bacon,  who  was  one  of  them,  expressed  it.)  And  later 
still,  the  sect  of  ecstatics  of  whom  Jane  Lead  was  the 
historian,  enjoyed  their  meditations  so  much  they  were 


INDICA  TIONS  OF  PROGRESS.  317 

loath  to  suspend  them  even  at  the  call  of  hunger.  As 
further  showing  that  the  bliss,  blessedness,  beatitude  in 
question  is  a  sensuous  enjoyment,  and  comes  as  ready 
payment  for  daily  practice,  and  not,  as  some  may  want 
to  have  it,  as  a  mental  delight  excited  by  the  hope  and 
belief  that  the  deserving  soul  will  some  day  go  to  heaven 
and  enjoy  bliss  there,  we  have  the  words  of  St.  Thomas 
\  Kempis,  where  he  advises  that  the  "sweetness  of  the 
flesh "  be  endured  rather  than  enjoyed  because  it  is 
sweet,  in  this  agreeing  with  John  of  the  Cross,  who  says 
the  ascetic  must  not  take  any  pleasure  "in  these  appre- 
hensions ";  that  we  may  prize  the  love  that  is  in  them 
but  not  the  joy.  To  the  same  point  I  quote  from  Von 
Kraft  Ebing's  "  Sexual  Psychopathy,"  the  following  con- 
cerning the  experiences  of  two  "heroines  of  flagella- 
tion": "Maria  Magdalena,  daughter  of  parents  of  high 
position,  was  a  nun  of  the  order  of  Carmelites,  at  Flor- 
ence, in  1580.  The  flagellations  she  received,  and  still 
more  the  consequences  of  that  kind  of  penance,  have 
given  her  great  celebrity  and  a  name  in  history.  Her 
greatest  happiness  was  when  the  prioress  made  her  hold 
her  hands  behind  her  back  and  had  her  whipped  on  the 
naked  reins  in  presence  of  all  the  sisters  of  the  convent." 
Consumed  by  internal  heat  and  raving  always  of  love, 
she  would  cry  out  when  under  the  lash:  "Enough!  do 
not  stir  any  more  the  fire  that  devours  me.  That  is  not 
the  kind  of  death  I  want;  there  would  be  too  much 
pleasure  in  it,  too  many  charms."  It  is  said  of  the  dear 
lady  that  "she  was  often  on  the  point  of  losing  her 
chastity."  Of  the  other,  Elizabeth  de  Genton,  very 
much  the  same  is  related:  "The  flagellation  put  her 
into  the  delirium  of  a  bacchante.  She  was  seized  with 
a  sort  of  rage  when,  excited  by  an  extraordinary  scourg- 
ing, she  believed  herself  married  to  her  ideal."  This 
state  procured  her  a  happiness  so  intense  that  she 
often  cried  out:  "O  love!  O  infinite  love!  O  love!  O 
creatures,  shout  then  with  me:  Love!    Love!"   In  both 


318  RESULTS  OF  PRACTICE   AND 

these  cases  it  seems  plain  that  the  bliss  was  as  fleshly  as 
the  stimulation  that  produced  it.      Nevertheless,  in  the 
interest  of  decency  and  truth,  a  protest  should  here  be 
entered  against  the  innuendoes  of  Boileau  and  Meibom- 
inus,  the  historians  cited  as  his  authorities  by  Von  Kraft 
Ebing.     What    the    nature    of   the   sensations   was  that 
made  both  ladies  rave  in  terms  of  human  love  is  not 
easily  to  be  found   out,  but  they  could   not  have  been 
like  those  confessed  to  by  the  Saints  Armelle  and  Eliz- 
abeth, which  implied  a  passion  for  the  infant  Jesus  and 
temptations  like  those  of  St.  Anthony  of  Padua.     The 
ecstatic  states  of  the  fair  flagellants  lasted  for  hours,  and 
were  experienced  in  presence  of  witnesses,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  nun  Magdalena.     As  for  the  consuming  heat  that 
made  St.  Catherine  of  Geneva  cry  out  that  she  was  burn- 
ing up,  it  was,  doubtless,  of  the  same  kind  as  that  felt 
by  King  Saul  when  suddenly  developed  as  a  prophet,  and 
that  made  him  fling  off  his  clothes  and  lie  on  the  ground 
all  night.    It  was  the  veritable  saintly  ardor  which  ascetics 
love  to  feel  as  a  symptom  of  progress.   It  is  also  a  trouble- 
some symptom  in  insane  asylums,  and  was  formerly  treated 
by  tying  on  the  clothes  and  binding  the  hands  of  the  suf- 
ferer behind  his  back,  but  now  by  seclusion  in  a  well- 
warmed  room  till  it  passes  off  of  itself.     Physicians  say 
it  indicates  a  peculiar  electric  state  of  the  skin,  and  leave 
us  as  wise  as  before,  but  do  not  connect  it  with  any  bliss- 
ful state.     Another  quotation  made  by  Von  Kraft  Ebing 
as  showing  that  immodest  states  may  result  from  devo- 
tional ones  is  a  prayer  from  a  very  old  missal,  running 
thus:   "O!  that  I  may  have  found  thee,  most  charming 
Emanuel,  that  I  may  have  thee  in  my  bed!  How  my  soul 
and  my  body  would  rejoice  if  I  had!  Come,  come  to  my 
dwelling,  my  heart  shall  be  thy  chamber!"    About  as 
strong  language  as  this  we  have  seen  to  have  been  used 
by  Saint  John  of  the  Cross  in  his  verses  detailing  his  secret 
rendezvous  with  his  beloved.     But  does  either  instance 
prove  anything  more  than  that  when  the  vague  joy  of  an 


INDICA  TIONS  OF  PROGRESS.  319 

occult  love  craves  expression,  it  has  to  clothe  itself  in  lan- 
guage of  natural  love  for  want  of  a  vocabulary  of  its  own, 
that  language  having  been  in  the  times  in  question  simpler 
and  honester  than  now?  The  obscene  formulas  of  Egyptian 
worship,  the  phallic  symbols  that  used  to  adorn  the  tem- 
ples of  all  old  religions,  and  the  dancing  women  attached 
to  them,  must,  upon  any  estimate  that  can  fairly  be  made 
of  the  morality  taught  there,  be  so  incongruous  with  it 
as  to  force  a  construction  that  robs  them  of  any  vulgar, 
literal  meaning.  But  though  the  strange  joy  of  hidden 
source  that  ascetics  of  all  times  have  gloried  in,  and  which 
now,  perhaps,  as  much  as  ever,  compensates  the  inmates 
of  cloisters  for  all  the  pleasures  of  the  outer  world  and 
all  the  hardships  of  internal  discipline  does  not  belong  to 
human  love,  it  still  belongs  to  a  love,  and  there  is  a  close 
enough  resemblance  between  the  two  evinced  by  the  fact 
just  noticed,  that  the  one  takes  on  the  same  modes  of  ex- 
pressing its  ardor  as  the  other,  to  say  nothing  of  the  many 
other  points  of  resemblance  that  will  presently  be  men- 
tioned to  prove  that  both  have  a  common  root,  or,  rather, 
that  the  one  springs  from  the  other,  and  also  prove  that 
both  are  of  the  body. 

And  what  is  this  other  love  that  comes  without  a  lover, 
that  begins  with  vibrations,  conducts  to  ecstasy  and 
ends  in  trance  ?  The  Chinese  sages  named  it  Tao.  The 
Buddhist,  who,  contrary  to  the  other  Hindus,  insist  that 
knowledge  does  all,  contend  that  love  does  all,  call  it 
simply  love.  Christians  say  it  is  the  love  of  God.  The 
Sufis  name  it  secret  or  mysterious  love.  Plato,  who  de- 
clared that  it  was  of  itself  sufficient  to  conduct  man  to 
perfection,  gives  it,  perhaps,  the  best  name  of  all — the 
"Amatory  Mania."  Let  the  one  love  be  called,  for  our 
purpose  here,  the  higher  and  the  other  the  lower.  In 
further  proof  that  the  love  whose  thrills  made  the  fair 
ecstatics  rave  was  not  the  lower — in  other  words,  that  the 
two  are  distinct  from  each  other  while  yet  akin — we  have 
the  fact  that  as  the  higher  arises  the  lower  dies  out,  and 


820  RESULTS   OF  PRACTICE   AND 

while  giving  birth  to  it  gives  place  to  it.  It  is  known 
that  an  unused  organ  atrophies  and  becomes  merely  rudi- 
mentary; also  that  celibacy  of  itself,  if  consistently  per- 
sisted in,  will  often  render  a  breach  of  it  impossible. 
But  when  in  connection  with  it  there  is  yoga  practice 
such  as  members  of  the  cloistered  orders  always  have 
enough  of  for  the  purpose,  the  result  in  question  must 
pretty  surely  follow.  John  of  the  Cross,  who  knew  all 
about  such  things,  encourages  those  who  may  suffer 
from  impure  excitement  such  as  has  been  mentioned,  by 
assuring  them  that  it  will  in  due  time  pass  away  with  the 
instinct  that  is  its  support,  leaving  only  the  love  of  God 
and  the  calm  bliss  belonging  to  it,  which  instinct  may 
be  likened  to  a  night-watchman,  who,  when  he  sees  the 
dawn,  awakens  the  day-watchman  and  then  disappears. 
He  says:  "As  the  love  of  God  grows  in  the  soul  the 
human  love  cools  and  is  forgotten."  The  transition  he 
speaks  of  as  a  severe  discipline.  The  devotee  is  apt  to 
become  discouraged  and  fear  he  is  not  serving  God. 
John  of  the  Cross,  as  Madam  Guyon  does  too,  speaks  of 
a  season  of  purgative  aridity  or  "spiritual  dryness,"  and 
says,  "the  cause  of  this  dryness  is  that  God  is  transfer- 
ring to  the  spirit  the  goods  and  energies  of  the  senses." 
Said  a  lady  who  had  just  visited  a  convent:  "You 
needn't  tell  me  those  nuns,  so  sleek  and  plump,  placid 
and  contented,  are  old  maids."  Of  course  the  remark 
was  purely  absurd,  as  probably  it  was  thoughtless.  She 
might  have  been  told  that  those  pleasant-faced  inmates 
enjoyed  a  compensation  in  their  single-blessedness  that 
spinsters  of  the  outer  world  know  nothing  of.  Probably 
the  flagellated  ladies  mentioned  in  Von  Ebing's  book 
had,  long  before  they  shouted  in  their  ecstasy,  passed 
into  the  state  where  all  love  is  God-love,  and  love  of  man 
but  rudimental.  Yet  both  are  physical  and  have  the 
same  physical  support,  and  are  not  always  separate  in 
their  activities,  if  John  of  the  Cross  is  good  authority. 
He  says,  in  treating  of  the  strange  impure  experiences 


INDICATIONS  OF  PROGRESS.  321 

that  result  from  their  mingling  with  or  overlapping  one 
another:  "  They  proceed  occasionally — though  but  rarely 
and  in  persons  of  delicate  constitution — from  sensible 
sweetness  in  spiritual  things.  For  when  sense  and  spirit 
are  both  united  together,  the  whole  nature  of  man  is 
moved  in  that  delectation,  according  to  its  measure  and 
character.  For  then  the  spirit,  that  is  the  higher  part  of 
our  nature,  is  moved  to  delight  itself  in  God;  and  sensu- 
ality, which  is  the  lower  part,  is  moved  towards  sensible 
gratification,  because  it  knows  and  admits  of  none 
other." 

Further  proof  of  the  close  kindred  of  the  two  loves  is 
found  in  the  fact  that  both  are  subject  to  the  same  kind 
of  perversion,  or,  as  distinguished  alienists  insist,  insan- 
ity. Of  late  years  Doctor  Moll  of  Berlin,  Doctor  Von 
Kraft  Ebing  of  Vienna  and  others  by  their  researches 
and  writings  have  made  known  to  the  world  the  charac- 
ter of  certain  anomalous  manifestations  of  the  sexual 
instinct  concerning  which,  though  of  too  common  occur- 
rence, little  or  nothing  was  before  known,  and  which, 
when  noticed  at  all,  were  treated  as  crimes.  One  of 
these  to  which  has  been  given  the  name  of  masochism  is 
described  by  Von  Kraft  Ebing  as  "that  particular  per- 
version of  the  psychic  vita  sexualis  which  consists  in  the 
fact  that  the  individual  is,  in  his  feelings  and  in  his 
sexual  thoughts,  possessed  by  the  idea  of  being  subjected 
absolutely  and  unconditionally  to  a  person  of  the  other 
sex,  to  be  treated  by  that  person  in  a  haughty  manner, 
even  to  the  point  of  inflicting  humiliation  and  torture. 
The  idea  is  accompanied  by  voluptuous  sensations;  he 
who  is  smitten  with  it  loves  to  imagine  scenes  of  the 
above  sort  and  often  tries  to  realize  them,  and,  by  such 
perversion  of  his  sexual  tendency  becomes  frequently 
more  or  less  insensible  to  the  normal  charms  of  the  other 
sex,  incapable  of  a  normal  vita  sexualis,  psychically 
impotent.  This  psychic  impotence,  however,  is.  nowise 
based  on  the  horror  sexualis  alterius  j  it  is  founded  on  the 


332  RESULTS  OF  PRACTICE  AND 

fact  that  the  satisfaction  of  the  perverse  tendency  can, 
as  in  normal  cases,  come  from  the  woman,  but  not  from 
connection  with  her." 

One  masochist  who  wrote  out  full  details  of  his  own 
case  and  those  of  others,  adds  the  following:  "  Men  at- 
tainted with  this  perversion  submit  themselves  to  the 
most  refined  tortures.  With  women  trained  to  it  the 
same  comedy  is  gone  through  with  at  each  visit;  the 
man  humbly  prostrates  himself ;  then  there  are  kicks,  im- 
perious commands,  insults  and  threats  that  have  been 
learned  by  heart;  then  whipping,  blows  on  divers  parts 
of  the  body  and  all  kinds  of  tortures,  pricking  with  pins 
till  blood  comes,  etc."  "  At  two  different  times  prosti- 
tutes have  shown  me  chains  of  iron  with  handcuffs  that 
their  clients  had  had  made  to  be  used  on  themselves, 
also  dried  peas  for  them  to  kneel  on,  cushions  bristling 
with  needles  upon  which  they  must  sit  when  ordered  to 
do  so,  and  many  other  things  of  like  sort." 

Another  wrote  down  for  the  benefit  of  a  fellow  maso- 
chist a  set  of  instructions  in  twenty  paragraphs,  telling 
how  he  should  get  himself  treated  as  a  slave  and  tor- 
tured. Another  used  to  go  once  a  week  to  a  certain 
kind  of  house  and  hire  three  of  the  heaviest  of  the 
women  to  trample  on  him  for  hours,  which  was  all  he  re- 
quired of  them.  And  as  to  dirtiness  it  is  said  that  cases 
are  not  rare  of  masochists  who  procured  themselves  to 
be  befouled  in  all  imaginable  ways,  even  to  the  extent  of 
matching  in  that  respect  "the  Christian  ecstatic  Antoi- 
nette Bouvignon  of  La  Porte,  who  mixed  excrement 
with  her  food  in  order  to  mortify  herself,  and  Marie 
Alacoque,  since  beatified,  who  for  her  mortification  licked 
the  dejections  of  sick  persons  and  sucked  their  great  toes 
covered  with  sores." 

As  cruelty  to  one's  self  naturally  runs  into  cruelty  to 
others,  it  is  not  surprising  that  masochism  is  often  allied 
to  another  congenital  anomaly  or  perversion  of  the  sexual 
nature,  called  sadism,  and  which  calls  for  every  degree 


INDICATIONS  OF  PROGRESS.  333 

of  cruelty  from  wringing  the  neck  of  a  chicken  to  mur- 
dering a  mistress,  cutting  her  up,  drinking  her  blood  and 
eating  her  flesh,  a  la  mode  Jack  the  Ripper  of  White- 
chapel.  One  beginning  as  a  sadist  will  be  apt  to  develop 
as  a  masochist,  and  vice  versa.  "  Sadism,"  remarks  Von 
Kraft  Ebing,  "is  the  very  opposite  of  masochism.  While 
the  one  wants  to  endure  pain,  and  feel  himself  subju- 
gated, the  other  seeks  to  produce  suffering  and  violence. 
The  parallelism  is  complete.  All  the  acts  and  all  the 
scenes  which  are  performed  by  the  sadist  in  an  active 
way  constitute  the  object  of  the  desires  of  the  masochist 
in  his  passive  role.  In  the  two  perversions  these  acts 
progress  gradually  from  symbolic  presentations  to  the 
worst  tortures.  Even  assassination  from  a  voluptuous 
impulse,  the  acme  of  sadism,  finds  its  passive  counter- 
part at  least  in  imaginings.  Both  perversions  can,  cir- 
cumstances favoring,  exist  side  by  side  with  a  normal  vita 
sexualis;  in  both  the  acts  by  which  they  manifest  them- 
selves serve  to  render  possible  what  was  before  impos- 
sible, or  else  serve  as  substitutes  for  it.  The  analogy 
concerns  not  only  the  external  symptoms,  but  extends  to 
the  inner  essence  of  the  two  perversions;  which  must 
equally  be  considered  as  psychopathic  and  congenital 
in  certain  individuals  whose  psychic  states  are  abnor- 
mal, and  who  are  above  all  afflicted  with  hyperesthesia 
sexualis. " 

And  now  taking  sadism  and  masochism  thus  rolled 
into  one,  and  comparing  the  one  perversion  of  the  lower 
or  man  love  which  they  represent  with  the  perversion  so 
often  manifesting  itself  in  ascetics  of  the  higher  or  God 
love,  we  see  that  there  are  common  to  both  of  them  the 
three  elements  of  cruelty,  humiliation  and  dirt  as  pro- 
ducers of  certain  sensations,  which  flow  directly  from 
them  and  without  calling  into  use  the  physical  apparatus 
already  rendered  useless  by  the  practice  of  austerities, 
or  resulting  from  what  is  by  our  author  termed  psychic 
impotence;  and  seeing  that  cruelty,  humiliation  and  dirt 


324  RESULTS   OF  PRACTICE  AND 

is  all  there  is  in  either  form  of  perverted  love,  the  re- 
semblance amounts  to  identity.  This  conclusion  exon- 
erates the  religious  principle  from  being  considered  the 
cause  of  the  maniacal  doings  of  ascetics  of  any  faith. 
But  it  does  not  exonerate  from  blame  a  church  who  ex- 
hibits as  her  best  work  such  specimens  as  sainted  Simeon 
Stylites,  Mary  of  Egypt,  John  of  the  Cross  and  Blessed 
Marie  Alacoque,  wretches  who  by  reason  of  some  anoma- 
lous congenital  perversion  of  their  psychic  natures  were 
unable  to  get  by  harmless  or  decent  modes  of  contem- 
plation the  blissful  sensations  they  craved  any  more  than 
the  sadists  and  masochists,  afflicted  by  a  like  perver- 
sion, can  obtain  in  a  natural  way  those  they  crave,  and 
by  a  like  insane  impulsion  with  theirs  are  driven  to  the 
very  same  vile  practices. 

The  masochist,  psychically  impuissant,  the  worn-out 
debauchee,  physically  so,  and  the  ascetic,  unable  other- 
wise to  attain  to  the  saintly  ecstasy  known  as  the  love 
of  God,  all  flagellate  themselves  on  the  same  part;  which 
certainly  seems  to  prove  that  the  higher  love  depends 
on  the  same  physical  apparatus  as  the  lower,  and  is  not 
an  independent  emotion  of  the  soul. 

The  analogy  existing  between  masochism  and  sadism, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  cruel  religious  penance  on  the 
other,  which  consists  in  this,  that  all  of  them  aim  at 
bringing  pleasure  out  of  pain,  has  not  escaped  Doctor 
Von  Kraft  Ebing.  But  certainly  the  resemblance  which 
another  sexual  perversion  described  by  him,  and  named 
fetichism,  bears  to  relic  worship  is  strong  enough  to 
justify  a  serious  belief  that  the  latter  grew  out  of  the 
former.  In  one  subject  to  fetichism,  "the  sexual  in- 
terest is  concentrated  exclusively  on  a  determinate  part 
of  the  body  of  a  woman  or  on  certain  parts  of  feminine 
apparel,"  Impelled  by  a  delirious  instinct,  the  fetichist 
ravishes,  not  the  woman  herself,  but  a  lock  of  her  hair, 
a  shoe  or  a  handkerchief,  and  in  caressing  his  plunder 


INDICATIONS  OF  PROGRESS.  335 

obtains  all  the  satisfaction  another  could  have  had  from 
possessing  her  person. 

To  the  attraction  of  physical  pleasure,  not  doubtful 
or  distant,  but  certain  and  immediate,  and  waited  on  by 
an  instinctual  impulse  that  will  not  be  refused,  every 
man  owes  his  being.  And  if  Nature,  having  brought  his 
race  thus  far  along  the  path  of  evolution,  intends  to 
allure  it  further,  it  will  be  by  analogous  means,  we  may 
be  sure.  But  it  is  her  habit  to  improve  her  methods  as 
she  goes;  and  what  is  the  most  obvious  improvement 
on  the  old  and  lower  love  unless  it  be  the  new  and  the 
higher  of  which  we  have  got  glimpses  while  searching 
out  the  secrets  of  yoga?  If  this  be  so,  then  according 
to  all  analogy  and  precedent  the  later  love  must  be  a 
projection  of  the  earlier  on  the  same  lines  with  it,  and, 
moreover,  the  mechanism  that  has  heretofore  served  the 
one,  must  so  far  as  applicable,  do  duty  for  the  other. 

Has  Nature,  creative  Nature,  any  further  work  to  do 
on  man? 

Union. 

Teachers  of  the  different  schools  of  yoga  agree  well 
enough  concerning  observable  results,  but  when  they  go 
beyond  them  and  undertake  to  know  what  happens  to 
the  yogi  after  he  attains,  into  what  state  of  being  he 
passes,  they  get  beyond  their  depth  and  float  in  the  sea 
called  speculative  philosophy,  wherein  each  swims  his 
own  way.  All  tell  of  an  union,  but  concerning  what  is 
united  to  what,  and  in  what  manner,  they  differ  widely. 
The  Hindus  make  the  union  to  consist  in  an  eternal  iden- 
tity with  Brahman,  and  attainment  to  consist  in  thor- 
oughly knowing  it.  The  Egyptians  made  of  it  nothing 
more  than  a  temporary  assimilation  with  some  personal 
god,  for  magical  purposes.  The  Christians  talk  of  an 
union  with  God,  which  is  yet  no  union  at  all,  but  merely 
a  presence.  He  being  of  a  nature  too  high  to  unite  with 
man's.    Ancient  Akkadian  magic  united  the  practicer  of 


326  RESULTS  OF  PRACTICE  AND 

it  to  a  being  variously  apprehended  as  a  part  of  his  own 
soul,  his  type  or  essence,  or  his  guardian  spirit  or  divinity. 
Taoism,  whose  god  was  a  principle,  had  an  at-one-ment 
with  it  attainable  by  the  man,  "whose  physical  frame  is 
perfect  and  whose  vitality  is  in  its  original  purity  " — 
something  quite  different  from  the  final  return  of  him  to 
the  source  whence  he  came.  Taoism  seems  to  have  looked 
in  the  very  opposite  direction  from  absorption,  as  will 
appear  further  on,  under  the  heading  of  Perfection. 

Neoplatonism,  too,  had  its  own  peculiar  union,  which 
was  brief,  occasional  and  made  no  final  disposition  of 
the  soul.  The  soul,  always  in  a  certain  sense  in  God, 
got  no  nearer  to  him  in  life  or  death  than  when  from 
time  to  time  it  attained  to  what  John  of  the  Cross  calls 
"  touches  of  union, "  described  by  him  as  being  so  delight- 
ful and  by  Plotinus  so  delightfully  described.  Always 
homesick  for  its  native  sky,  and  having  received  from 
pitying  Jupiter  the  gift  of  mortality,  it  habitually  returned 
there  to  dwell  between  its  re-incarnations. 

All  beliefs  that  have  arisen  out  of  yoga  experience, 
whether  justly  or  erroneously,  were  the  best,  the  wisest, 
men  of  the  times  could  formulate,  and  have  value  as  in- 
dications of  what  those  experiences  really  were.  Thus 
the  diverse  beliefs  concerning  the  kind  of  union  that 
rewards  the  attaining  yogi's  pains,  while  by  their  diversity 
they  make  it  impossible  for  more  than  one  of  them  to  be 
true,  and  cast  great  doubt  on  that,  yet  by  their  agree- 
ment, so  far  as  they  do  agree,  tend  to  prove  that  among 
those  experiences  are  physical  sensations  or  mental  im- 
pressions as  of  something  coming  into  closer  relations 
than  it  had  before  with  another  something.  Such  might 
be  the  rapprochement  of  the  normal  centre  of  conscious- 
ness and  the  nerve-centres,  or  of  the  normal  volition 
and  the  so-called  involuntary  muscles,  or  of  whatever 
stands  for  soul  with  the  body  it  pertains  to,  whether 
that  be  a  resultant  of  material  forces,  as  the  materialists 
claim,  or  a  sky-born  entity  that  descends  into  generation 


INDICATIONS  OF  PROGRESS.  327 

more  or  less  deep  according  as  it  sees  tlie  body  to  need 
its  presence,  as  a  Neoplatonist  would  have  said. 

In  what  has  just  been  stated  of  six  theories  relating  to 
union,  it  is  seen  that  only  one  of  them,  Vedantin  Hindu- 
ism, attempts  to  unfold  the  final  destiny  of  the  soul, 
which  it  does  by  leading  it  back  to  whence  it  came  and 
leaving  it  there  for  a  Hindu  eternity,  while  another,  old 
Taoism,  as  if  it  held  earth-life  to  be  all,  or  at  least  as 
ignoring  every  other,  points  towards  an  infinite  enlarge- 
ment of  that  as  man's  destiny,  to  attain  to  which  how- 
ever, it  is  forward,  not  backward,  he  is  to  go,  and  the 
material  earth  that  he  is  to  tread.  Thus  these  two  great 
systems  teach  doctrines  as  opposite  to  each  other  as  they 
very  well  can,  and  which  tend  mutually  to  discredit  each 
other,  since  both  rest  on  like  authority,  namely,  mystical 
experience,  intuition,  revelation.  But  so  far  as  primi- 
tive yoga  literature  discloses,  old  Hinduism  was  as  care- 
less of  the  soul's  destiny  apart  from  that  of  the  body  as  old 
Taoism  was,  and  looked  as  exclusively  towards  the  earth 
as  the  home  of  the  united  two.  The  modern  commen- 
tator on  Swatmaram's  book  says  of  Hatha  Yoga :  "  It  even 
bestows  the  gift  of  putting  off  death  indefinitely;"  in 
which  he  is  in  agreement  with  vulgar  belief  in  India  at 
the  present  time.  Besides  the  statement  before  quoted 
concerning  the  thirty-five  gods  and  yogis,  Swatmaram's 
book  contains  the  following  promises  of  longevity  at 
least  as  the  reward  of  yoga  practice:  "And  the  yogi 
lives  long;  "  "  becomes  a  lad  of  sixteen,  ever  free  from 
old  age;"  "even  poison  itself  proves  to  him  but  nec- 
tar;" "the  yogi  becomes  young,  though  old;  "  "a  yogi 
in  Samadhi  is  invulnerable  to  all  weapons." 

But  the  following  certainly  mean  more  than  longevity: 
"The  Yogi  cheats  death;"  "These  are  the  ten  Mudras 
that  destroy  old  age  and  death;"  "This  Maha  Mudra 
destroys  death ;  "  "  This  frees  one  from  the  great  noose 
of  King  Yama  "  (death);  "These  three  Bandhas  that 
ward  off  death  and  old  age;"   "To  him  who  knows  the 


328  RESULTS  OF  PRACTICE  AND 

Khechari  Mudra  there  is  no  disease  or  death,  and  Time 
has  no  power  over  him;"  "(This  act)  enables  him  to 
ward  off  weapons  of  every  sort,  confers  on  him  immor- 
tality; "  "  He  who  practices  this  for  three  hours  daily 
conquers  death',"  "even  though  he  is  in  the  mouth  of 
death,  he  need  not  fear  it;  "  "  He  conquers  Time  (death) 
playfully;  "  "  Salutations  to  you,  Amaras  (immortals)  by 
whom  Time,  into  whose  mouth  the  universe  falls,  has 
been  conquered;"  "Death  is  not  experienced  by  the 
practicer  of  this  Mudra,"  "The  man  perfect  in  Rajah 
Yoga  deceives  death;"  "  A  Yogi  in  Samadhi  is  not  de- 
stroyed by  death;"  "is  invulnerable  to  all  weapons;" 
"Brahman  and  Gods  devoting  themselves  to  the  practice 
of  Pranyama  were  freed  from  the  fear  of  death."  One 
verse  undertakes  to  explain  how  it  is  that  man  is  subject 
to  death  and  another  to  explain  why  his  body  becomes 
old,  by  the  fact  that  "  every  particle  of  nectar  (the 
Satravi)  that  flows  from  the  Ambrosial  Moon  is  swal- 
lowed up  by  the  Sun,"  an  explanation  which  the  com- 
mentator says  is  purposely  absurd ;  but  the  offering  of 
which  indicates  that  the  sages  claimed  to  have  knowl- 
edge of  the  causes  of  old  age  and  death  and  also  of  proc- 
esses by  which  their  action  could  be  annulled. 

These  many  allusions  to  immortality  found  in  a  hun- 
dred-page volume  are  not  contradicted  by  anything  else 
it  contains  save  one  or  two  phrases  in  which  may  imply 
deliverance  from  re-incarnation,  of  which  I  have  before 
said  that  they  are  so  inconsistent  with  the  whole  tenor 
of  the  book  that  they  probably  are  interpolations.  The 
immortality  intended  in  the  passages  quoted  is  to  be 
acquired  by  the  yogi's  own  efforts,  something  not  pred- 
icable  of  incorporeal  immortality,  since  all  conceptions  of 
that  include  a  soul  capable,  to  be  sure,  of  being  punished 
or  rewarded  after  its  body's  death,  but  itself  incapable 
of  dying;  a  soul  whose  persistence  does  not  depend  on 
its  possessor's  efforts,  but  is  his  in  spite  of  anything  he 
can  do  or  omit.     So  that  the  immortality  in  question  can 


INDICATIONS   OF  PROGRESS.  329 

be  no  other  than  corporeal.  Nor  can  it  be  construed  to 
signify  an  indefinitely  prolonged  life,  for  the  words  used 
will  bear  no  such  limitation. 

New  Birth. 

This  term  occurs  so  often  in  the  literature  of  magic 
that  there  must  be  something  in  the  experiences  of  magi- 
cians to  suggest  it.  Yet  no  writer  reveals  just  what  that 
something  is,  nor  just  how  the  term  applies  to  it.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  often-occurring  word  regenera- 
tion, which  may  be  intended  as  synonymous  with  re-birth, 
though  it  comes  nearer  to  re-begetting.  Both  are  often 
repeated  in  Christian  writings.  Methodistical  Protest- 
ants attach  the  same  meaning  to  them  that  they  do  to 
"finding  Jesus,"  "  getting  religion  "  or  "  having  a  change 
of  heart,"  terms  as  badly  in  want  of  definition  as  them- 
selves. As  commonly  used,  they  signify  to  Christians  an 
improvement  in  the  moral  disposition  such  as  Protest- 
ants of  that  sort  are  said  to  undergo  between  conversion 
and  backsliding;  but  perhaps  love  experiences  of  some 
kind  may  be  at  the  bottom.  In  any  case  it  behooves  the 
student  of  magic  to  follow  the  clew  the  words  new  birth 
and  regeneration  tender. 

Perfectioji. 
To  John  of  the  Cross  this  word  signified  union  with 
God,  and  such  must  be  taken  to  be  the  Church's  construc- 
tion of  the  perfection  to  which  Jesus  attained  through 
suffering  and  which  he  promised  his  disciples  they  should 
also  reach.  The  gnostics  and  Kabbalists  held  that  per- 
fection was  arrived  at  by  means  of  successive  re-incar- 
nations. The  Greeks  named  their  mysteries  "Tellai," 
which  means  perfection.  The  alchemists  of  Christian 
times  taught  "  that  man  was  perfectible  and  in  the  scheme 
of  nature  destined  to  and  bound  for  perfection,"  and  that 
so  was  everything  else  in  nature,  whose  imperfect  work 
their  art  occupied  itself  with  amending.     Old   Taoism 


880  RESULTS  OF  PRACTICE  AND 

makes  perfection,  the  perfection  of  the  man  of  the  earth 
and  for  purposes  of  earth-life,  the  object  and  aim  of 
magical  practice — quite  a  different  one,  as  said  before, 
from  that  of  Vedantism,  which  is  the  getting  away  from 
that  life  by  getting  to  God.  The  one  contemplates  the 
completion  of  an  unfinished  piece  of  creative  work;  the 
other  the  abandoning  it.  The  one  points  forward  along 
an  unending  way  to  infinite  excellence;  the  other  points 
backward  towards  the  starting  point  of  a  sad,  unprofitable 
journey. 

To  the  Taoist  the  words  saint,  sage  and  perfect  man 
meant  one  and  the  same  thing,  and  it  was  Taoism's  great- 
est saint  and  sage  and  most  perfect  man  who  said :  "  Tao 
conducts  to  perfection."  That  this  perfection  was  of  the 
earthly  body  and  being  is  declared  plainly  enough  by  his 
greatest  disciple  Chuang-Tzu  in  the  following  passages: 
"See  nothing,  hear  nothing,  let  your  soul  be  wrapped  in 
quiet;  and  your  body  will  begin  to  take  the  proper  form. 
Let  there  be  absolute  repose  and  absolute  purity,  do  not 
weary  your  body  nor  disturb  your  vitality — and  you  will 
live  forever.  For  if  the  eye  sees  nothing  and  the  ear 
hears  nothing  and  the  mind  thinks  nothing,  the  soul  will 
preserve  the  body  and  the  body  will  live  forever." 

"Cherish  and  preserve  your  own  self." 

"I  preserve  the  original  one  while  resting  in  harmony 
with  eternals.  It  is  because  I  have  thus  cared  for  my- 
self during  twelve  hundred  years  that  my  body  has  not 
decayed." 

"  By  renouncing  the  world  one  gets  rid  of  the  cares  of 
the  world.  The  result  is  a  natural  level,  which  is  equiva- 
lent to  a  re-birth.     And  he  who  is  re-born  is  near." 

"But  why  renounce  the  affairs  of  men  and  become  in- 
different to  life  ?  In  the  first  case  his  physical  body  suf- 
fers no  wear  and  tear;  in  the  second  the  vitality  is  left 
unimpaired.  And  he  whose  physical  frame  is  perfect  and 
whose  vitality  is  in  its  original  purity,  he  is  at  one  with 
Heaven." 


INDICATIONS   OF  PROGRESS.  331 

"  But  if  body  and  vitality  are  both  perfect,  this  state 
is  called  fit  for  translation." 

"And  if  I  can  refrain  from  injuring  my  animal  economy 
and  from  taxing  my  powers  of  sight  and  hearing,  sitting 
like  a  corpse  while  my  dragon-power  is  manifested  around 
— in  profound  silence  while  my  thunder  voice  resounds, 
the  powers  of  heaven  responding  to  every  phase  of  my 
will,  as  under  the  gentle  influence  of  inaction  all  things 
are  brought  to  maturity  and  thrive — what  leisure  have  I 
then  to  set  about  governing  the  world?" 

Concerning  other  magical  powers  of  the  perfected  man 
Chuang-Tzu  says: 

"  His  knowledge  extends  to  the  supernatural.'' 

"  If  men  are  without  Tao,  by  a  mere  look  he  calls  them 
to  a  sense  of  error."  And  finally  and  inclusively  we  have 
this  sweeping  clause:  "Once  attain  to  Tao,  and  there  is 
nothing  which  you  cannot  accomplish." 

That  the  Taoists  believed  in  a  past  Golden  Age,  when 
men  were  morally  perfect,  appears  from  the  following: 
"  In  the  Golden  Age  rulers  were  mere  beacons.  The 
people  were  free  as  wild  deer.  They  were  upright  with- 
out being  conscious  of  duty  to  their  neighbor.  They 
loved  one  another  without  being  conscious  of  charity. 
They  were  true  without  being  conscious  of  loyalty.  They 
were  honest  without  being  conscious  of  good  faith.  They 
acted  freely  in  all  things  without  recognizing  obligation 
to  any  one.  Thus  their  deeds  left  no  trace  and  their 
affairs  were  not  handed  down  to  posterity." 

From  their  belief  in  a  past  Golden  Age  the  Taoists  may 
well  enough  have  derived  the  expectation  of  one  in  the 
future,  and  also  the  idea  of  man's  perfectibility.  That 
they,  like  the  old  Hindu  sages,  had  notions  of  the  evolu- 
tion of  man  from  the  lower  orders  of  creation,  much  like 
those  now  so  largely  occupying  the  minds  of  our  scientific 
men,  and  from  thence  inferred  an  indefinite  continuance 
of  his  progress  in  the  direction  of  perfection,  and  that 
consciously,  is  shown  by  the  following  saying  of  Chuang- 


f 

332  INDICA  TIONS  OF  PROGRESS. 

Tzu:  "To  have  attained  to  the  human  form  must  be 
always  a  source  of  joy.  And  then  to  undergo  countless 
transitions  with  only  the  infinite  to  look  forward  to — 
what  incomparable  bliss  is  that !  "  Words  like  these  could 
hardly  apply  to  a  series  of  evolutionary  changes,  each  one 
cut  off  from  the  others  by  death  and  oblivion,  as  has  been 
the  case  in  the  past. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

EARTHLY    IMMORTALITY. 

The  immortality  which,  according  to  the  ancient  Tao- 
ist  and  Hindu  sages,  was  attainable  through  yoga  practice 
was  not  entered  upon  through  the  gates  of  death  nor  en- 
joyed in  the  skies,  neither  in  the  land  of  the  fathers  nor 
in  the  land  of  the  gods,  nor  in  the  bosom  of  Brahman. 
The  possessor  of  it  was,  according  to  the  Taoists,  one 
who  had  undergone  transformation,  not  dissolution,  "fit 
for  translation"  from  here,  but  still  here ;  according  to  the 
Hindus,  "moving  about  the  world."  It  was  accompanied 
by  an  equipment  of  magical  qualities,  the  Siddhis,  adapted 
to  and  necessary  to  it,  and  not  adapted  to  any  other  con- 
ceivable mode  of  existence  than  in  a  physical  body  and 
on  a  material  earth.  For  mortal  man  they  have  hitherto 
at  least  proved  of  small  use  for  good.  Although  beyond 
measure  wonderful,  they  are  as  yet  quantitatively  scant. 
We  do  not  learn  that  the  experiment  of  the  good  Chinese 
emperor  in  governing  by  magic  resulted  in  the  permanent 
abolition  of  rulers  and  laws,  though  one  is  tempted  to 
wish  it  had.  The  success  of  Elijah  in  calling  down  flame 
from  Heaven  to  kindle  his  altar  fagots  did  not  dispense 
with  any  of  the  other  tiresome  methods  of  starting  fires 
that  taxed  the  sweat  of  men  before  tinder,  flint  and  steel 
were  brought  into  use  by  the  practical  kind  of  magic 
called  invention.  Spectres  of  gods  and  men  have  been 
exhibited  by  theurgists  and  necromancers,  but  it  Is  not 
probable  that  any  theatrical  company  was  ever  made  up 
of  spectral  illusions.  Real  flowers  often  fall  from  the 
ceiling  upon  the  seance-table,  but  never  in  quantity  ade- 
quate to  the  requirements  of  a  fashionable  funeral.     Just 


334  EARTHLY  IMMORTALITY. 

before  a  memorable  panic  in  Wall  Street,  a  certain  specu- 
lator was  by  an  invisible  hand  pushed  in  the  direction  of 
his  broker's  office,  while  a  voice  in  his  ear  said :  "  Go  and 
close  up  your  margins,"  which,  neglecting  to  do,  he  was 
ruined  on  "  Black  Friday,"  yet  his  experience  has  failed 
to  furnish  any  sure  way  of  knowing  in  advance  how  the 
market  will  turn,  and  with  him  all  the  thousands  of  other 
"  operators  for  a  rise  "  on  that  same  day  went  unadmon- 
ished  to  pecuniary  perdition.  Abaris,  the  Celtic  priest 
of  Apollo,  when  on  a  visit  to  Pythagoras,  crossed  a  river 
astride  an  arrow,  and  Elijah,  by  threshing  with  his 
mantle  the  waters  of  Jordan,  caused  them  to  part  and  let 
him  pass  over  dry-shod,  yet  no  ferry  has  yet  been  worked 
on  the  principle  of  levitation,  nor  any  stream  been  made 
permanently  fordable  by  Elijah's  method.  Magical  heal- 
ers have  always  abounded,  yet  none  the  less  so  have  me- 
dicinal ones.  Fortune-tellers  tell  fortunes  truly,  yet  still 
the  future  is  dark.  And  without  ignoring  the  benefits 
that  have  undoubtedly  been  derived  from  magic,  yet, 
considering  the  disturbance  it  has  caused  in  the  world  as 
it  is,  one  may  easily  see  that  the  world  as  it  is  would 
have  been  better  without  it — which  is  the  commonest  and 
also  the  best  argument  that  is  urged  against  magical 
studies.  And  a  perception  of  the  inadaptability  of  magic 
to  our  actual  life  is  probably  at  the  bottom  of  the  rather 
stolid  disregard  of  it  in  modern  times.  Hindu  philosophy, 
which  includes  that  of  Buddhism  and  therefore  covers 
nearly  all  of  Asia,  rejects  the  Siddhis  as  worthless  for  the 
saint  and  dangerous  if  possessed  by  the  sinner,  howbeit 
there,  as  elsewhere  and  always,  religion  puts  a  portion 
of  them  to  its  own  use,  and  diverts  Prana,  the  life-breath, 
to  blow  upon  the  mill-wheels  that  grind  the  grist  of  the 
priests. 

Of  European  mankind  the  Catholic  part  are  allowed  to 
do  nothing  in  magic  except  under  Church  surveillance, 
that  follows  into  his  locked  cell  the  ascetic  who  retires 
there,  in  the  words  of  Plotinus,  "  to  receive  God  and  to 


EARTHLY  IMMORTALITY.  335 

be  alone  with  the  Alone  "—and  grimly  presides  over  his 
meditations.  All  of  magic,  beyond  the  small  portion 
appropriated  and  controlled  by  the  Church,  is  jumped  up 
and  down  upon  by  both  it  and  the  State.  The  Protestant 
part,  having  been  told  by  Luther  that  the  day  of  magic 
was  past,  quite  ignores  it,  except  that  occasionally  it  is 
allowed  to  play  the  part  of  the  "inner  witness,"  a  kind 
of  professional  witness,  and  a  willing  one,  that  most 
always  testifies  in  favor  of  the  party  calling  it.  And  so 
it  is  that  there  is  small  use  or  place  for  magic  in  the  world 
as  it  is. 

Difficulties  in  the  Way. 

Even  if  Nature  should  effect  in  the  organism  the  proper 
change  (possibly  a  very  slight  one)  needed  to  secure  to 
the  individual  man  what  may  be  termed  physiological 
immortality,  good  against  death  by  old  age,  yet  disease 
would  remain ;  if  he  were  rendered  pathologically  immor- 
tal by  the  extinction  of  disease,  there  would  still  he  hard 
rocks  for  him  to  fall  on,  or  to  fall  on  him,  water  to  drown 
and  fire  to  consume  him,  cold  to  freeze  and  famine  to 
starve,  ferocious  beasts  to  eat,  machinery  to  crush,  gases 
to  suffocate,  and  elemental  violence  of  every  kind  to 
overwhelm  and  sweep  him  into  the  gaping  hopper  of 
death.  After  long  and  hard  battling  with  these,  and 
thereby  proving  himself  fit  to  live,  warrantable  to  last 
with  good  usage  some  seventy  years  or  so,  man  remains 
at  present  date  a  very  perishable  article,  vulnerable  still 
to  his  old  enemies.  Two  sages,  at  least,  both  of  them 
believers  in  terrestrial  immortality,  have  shown  in  their 
writings  that  they  foresaw  these  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
it,  by  suggesting  methods  for  overcoming  them.  Says 
Chuang-Tzu:  "  The  perfect  man  can  walk  through  solid 
bodies  without  obstruction.  He  can  pass  through  fire 
without  being  burnt.  He  can  scale  the  greatest  heights 
without  fear." 

"  He  could  ride  upon  the  wind  and  travel  whithersoever 
he  wished,  staying  away  as  long  as  fifteen  days." 


336  EARTHLY  IMMORTALITY. 

"The  perfect  man  is  a  spiritual  being.  Were  the 
ocean  half  scorched  up  he  would  not  feel  hot.  Were  the 
milky  way  frozen  over  he  would  not  feel  cold.  Were  the 
mountains  riven  with  thunder  and  the  great  deep  up- 
heaved by  storm  he  would  not  tremble.  In  such  case  he 
would  mount  upon  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and,  driving  the 
sun  and  moon  before  him,  would  pass  beyond  the  limits 
of  this  external  world  to  where  death  and  life  themselves 
have  no  more  victory  over  man." 

It  was  a  long  while  after  Chuang-Tzu  that  Jacob  Boehme 
wrote  the  following:  "Before  his  fall,  man  could  rule 
over  the  sun  and  the  stars.  Everything  was  in  his  power. 
Fire,  air,  water  and  earth  could  not  tame  him;  no  fire 
burned  him,  no  water  drowned,  no  air  suffocated  him; 
all  that  lived  stood  in  awe  of  him." 

**  No  heat,  no  cold,  no  sickness  nor  accident,  nor  any 
fear  could  touch  or  terrify  him.  His  body  could  pass 
through  earth  and  rocks  without  breaking  anything  in 
them,  for  a  man  who  could  be  overpowered  by  the  terres- 
trial nature  would  not  be  eternal." 

What  has  last  been  quoted  from  Chuang-Tzu  comple- 
ments what  was  quoted  from  him  under  the  head  of 
Perfection,  which  by  itself  and  on  a  first  reading  may 
seem  to  make  immortality  depend  on  continual  care 
of  the  body  and  to  ignore  the  necessity  of  the  magical 
qualities  as  its  support  and  protection,  the  two  quo- 
tations taken  together,  however,  amounting  to  a  distinct 
declaration  of  a  doctrine  of  physiological  and  patho- 
logical immortality  protected  and  supported  by  Siddhis 
conferring  invulnerability,  etc.  Indeed,  the  first  quo- 
tation may  be  said  to  imply  the  need  of  these  adjuncts, 
as,  for  instance,  where  the  words,  "it  is  because  I  have 
thus  cared  for  myself  during  twelve  hundred  years  that 
my  body  has  not  decayed,"  are  followed  by  *'  the  result 
is  a  natural  level,  which  is  equivalent  to  a  re-birth.  And 
he  who  is  re-born  is  near  " ;  and  soon  afterward  by  these : 
*'  But  if  body  and  vitality  both  are  perfect  this  state  is 


EARTHLY  IMMORTALITY.  337 

called  fit  for  translation. "  Mere  physiological  and  patho- 
logical longevity,  dependent  on  persistent  care  of  the 
body,  cannot  be  the  state  here  referred  to,  and  we  must 
presume  a  radical  and  permanent  transformation  render- 
ing death  from  any  cause  impossible  to  be  intended. 

The  idea  of  immortality  thus  held  up  as  a  reward  of 
diligent  yoga  practice,  whether  capable  of  being  realized 
or  not,  need  not  hide  its  head  in  presence  of  any  other 
yet  devised  by  human  ingenuity;  it  looks  in  the  only 
direction  our  minds  are  able  to  turn,  points  to  the  only 
way  our  feet  are  fitted  to  travel  and  promises  the  only 
kind  of  life  we  know  how  to  live.  Let  us,  therefore,  not 
disdain  to  go  further  in  the  examination  of  the  grounds 
of  it,  and  to  that  end,  of  the  adaptability  to  a  state  of 
being  which  is  nothing  else  than  immortality  in  the  flesh 
and  on  the  earth,  of  the  Siddhis  that  attend  its  attainment 
(including  in  that  term  all  magical  powers  possible  to  man, 
or  believed  by  the  sages  to  be  so).  A  reference  to  the 
statements  of  the  nature  these,  as  given  by  Lao-Tsee  and 
Chuang-Tzu  and  the  Hatha  and  Vedanta  schools,  will 
show  that  both  the  Hindu  and  Taoist  authorities,  to  say 
nothing  of  others,  substantially  concur  in  making  of  them 
a  complete  suit  of  armor  to  defend  the  immortal  against 
the  following  evils  expected  to  beset  him  even  after  be- 
coming exempt  from  death  by  old  age: 

1.  All  other  effects  of  age. 

2.  Disease. 

3.  Poison. 

4.  Impact  of  solid  bodies,  thus  of  all  kinds  of  physical 
violence. 

5.  Fire. 

6.  Water. 

7.  Suffocating  gases  and  vapors. 

8.  Imprisonment  and  other  personal  restraint. 

9.  Hunger,  thirst  and  all  forms  of  poverty. 
10.   Evil  magic. 


338  EARTHLY  IMMORTALITY. 

The  qualities  requisite  to  meet  these  dangers  may  be 
summarized  as  follows: 

1.  Immunity  from  wear  and  tear:  Magical  writings 
abound  in  accounts  of  prolonged  youth  and  even  actual 
rejuvenescence,  from  Moses,  whose  "eye  was  not 
dimmed,  nor  his  natural  force  abated,"  when  at  the  age 
of  an  hundred  and  twenty  he  disappeared,  to  Postel's 
nun,  who  when  nearing  sixty  looked  fifteen. 

2.  Unlimited  receptivity  to  the  ever-superabundant 
flow  of  vital  force,  ready  and  pressing  to  enter,  must 
needs  exclude  all  forms  of  disease. 

3.  Immunity  from  venomous  reptiles:  Saint  Paul  was 
not  the  only  magician  that  a  snake-bite  could  not  kill; 
thousands  of  such  now  live. 

4.  The  permeability  of  matter:  That  matter  can  pass 
through  matter  unhurting  and  unhurt  is  now  being 
proved  in  many  a  circle  of  modern  Spiritualists,  espe- 
cially in  America.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  said  to  have  gone 
in  and  out  through  closed  doors,  in  his  earthly  body  of 
solid  flesh,  and  Apollonius  of  Tyania  and  Saint  Peter 
escaped,  the  one  from  arrest  and  the  other  from  prison, 
in  the  same  way.  This  permeability  of  matter  is,  how- 
ever, but  slowly  getting  believed  in  even  by  the  experi- 
menters themselves,  and  this  notwithstanding  modern 
science  has  come  to  its  aid  by  proving  that,  after  all,  the 
final  atoms  into  which  matter  can  be  resolved  are  only 
vortices  of  ether  whirling  at  a  distance  each  from  the 
others,  and  that  ether  is  not  material — thus  that  the 
hardest  rock  is  but  a  mist  of  atomized  motion. 

5.  Incombustibility:  Many  who  are  willing  to  admit 
that  in  this  generation  the  medium  Home  more  than  once 
handled  live  coals  of  fire,  and  that  in  some  eastern  coun- 
tries devotees,  prepared  for  the  purpose  by  a  course  of 
fasting  and  prayer,  walk  barefoot  over  beds  of  them, 
would  shrink  from  accepting  as  literally  true  the  story  of 
Shadrach,  Meshac  and  Abednego  going  through  a  super- 
heated furnace,  yet  in  all  the  cases  the  principle  involved 


EARTHLY  IMMORTALITY.  339 

is  the  same.  In  normal  conditions,  to  expose  hands  or 
feet  to  the  action  of  fire  without  getting  them  burnt  is 
impossible;  and  that  is  the  worst  can  be  said  of  walking 
through  a  furnace,  however  fiery. 

6.  Levitation:  One  able  to  rise  and  float  in  the  air, 
after  the  manner  of  Elijah,  Simon  Magus  and  the  me- 
dium Home,  need  not  drown  in  water.  And  levitation  of 
men  and  furniture  is  nowadays  both  common  and  cheap. 

7.  Ability  to  live  without  breathing :  Suffocation  should 
be  impossible  to  a  yogi  who  has  learned  to  do  without 
breathing  through  performing  the  Khechari  Mudra. 

8.  Absolute  freedom  of  locomotion:  No  prison  or  fet- 
ters could  restrain  a  magician  able  to  pass  through  mat- 
ter like  those  who  have  been  named. 

9.  Abundant  wealth:  Poverty  could  certainly  have  no 
place  in  a  world  peopled  by  magicians  able,  like  Jesus 
and  Elijah,  to  multiply  food  at  discretion,  or  like  many 
an  Indian  faquir,  to  raise  a  tree  from  the  seed  in  a  few 
minutes'  time. 

10.  Inaccessibility  to  malignant  spells:  Evil  magicians 
vainly  aim  their  enchantments  against  an  attained  yogi; 
as  Plotinus  puts  it:  "A  self-centred  man  cannot  be 
bewitched." 

It  may  be  suggested  that  an  easier  way  than  the  above 
to  render  a  man  indestructible  would  be  to  let  him  die, 
and  in  his  spirit  body,  a  duplicate  of  the  physical  one, 
go  and  dwell  forever  in  a  spirit  world,  a  duplicate  of 
this  physical  earth.  But  would  he  not  be  assailed  there 
by  exact  duplicates  of  every  destructive  agency  that 
menaced  him  here,  as  well  adapted  to  work  on  the  spirit 
body  as  they  on  the  natural  one  ? 

Again  it  may  be  suggested,  all  the  physiologically  im- 
mortal man  would  need  to  render  him  actually  death- 
proof  would  be  a  knowledge  of  the  future,  the  remote 
and  the  hidden,  such  as  would  forewarn  him  of  approach- 
ing danger  and  teach  him  how  to  avoid  it.  But  this 
would  make  his  life  dependent  on  his  own  vigilance  and 


340  EAR THL  Y  IMMOR TALITY. 

volition;  and  Nature's  habit  is  not  to  trust  the  preserva- 
tion of  her  work  to  anything  so  precarious  as  these  if  she 
can  do  better,  as  she  does  in  placing  the  vegetative  move- 
ments of  the  organism,  the  breathing,  circulation,  etc., 
under  the  control  of  the  involuntary  muscles.  In  fact 
the  difficulty  in  question  applies  to  some  of  the  siddhis 
themselves,  which  would  be  of  no  use  without  the  action 
of  the  will,  as  for  instance  the  power  of  levitation  and 
that  of  doing  without  breath,  the  mere  possession  of 
which,  without  the  will  to  exert  them  at  the  proper  time 
would  still  leave  the  individual  exposed  to  death  by 
drowning  or  suffocation  by  noxious  air,  or  want  of  air. 
But  to  meet  these  difficulties  all  needed  would  be  such  a 
transformation  as  would  place  all  movement  requisite  to 
preserve  life  under  the  control  of  the  involuntary  and 
unconscious  part  of  man,  just  as  the  vegetative  move- 
ments now  are — although  Hindu  philosophers  say  that 
once  it  was  not  so,  and  claim  it  to  be  proved  by  the  fact 
that  some  yogis  have  regained  the  original  voluntary 
control  over  certain  organs,  and  can  even  arrest  the  beat- 
ing of  the  heart  at  will.  Certainly  if,  as  many  wise  men 
have  believed,  man  made  himself,  he  must  have  begun  by 
functioning  each  organ  voluntarily  and  consciously,  and 
continued  to  do  so  until  by  long  practice  the  proper 
movement  became  habitual,  automatic,  and  went  on  in- 
dependently of  his  will  or  thought.  To  many,  perhaps 
to  most  persons,  this  would  be  inconceivable;  but  to  one 
who  will  scan  the  progress  of  man's  creation  upward 
from  the  worm  that  had  the  honor  to  be  his  ancestor, 
whatever  may  be  his  opinion  concerning  the  kind  of 
agency  operating  it,  whether  supernatural  or  mechanical, 
it  ought  not  to  be  so,  nor  should  such  an  one  distrust  the 
cunning  of  the  hand  that  did  the  work,  or  doubt  its 
ability  to  carry  it  on.  And  it  may  even  be  possible  to 
some  speculative  minds  to  conjecture  that  the  future  pro- 
gress of  the  race  may  be  through  a  series  of  transitions 
from  voluntary  activities  to  involuntary  ones,  the  volun- 


EARTHLY  IMMORTALITY.  341 

tary  being  first  set  up  by  the  conscious  brain  and  when 
perfected  by  that,  remitted  to  the  control  of  the  uncon- 
scious one,  or  of  the  little  brains  which  the  nerve-centres 
are,  while  the  conscious  man  passes  on  to  the  work  of 
self-perfection  next  in  order.  One  consequence  of  such 
a  state  of  things  might  be  that  men  would  remit  to  the 
control  of  the  unconscious  the  more  distasteful  of  the 
activities  of  life — perhaps  all  of  them,  and  like  Krishna, 
god,  yogi  and  warrior,  who  declared  that  while  he  was 
cutting  and  thrusting  in  the  hot  of  the  battle  his  con- 
sciousness of  his  own  exploits  was  only  that  of  a  witness, 
and  not  of  a  doer. 

If  at  a  time  before  the  first  human  being  appeared,  and 
while  as  yet  the  anthropoid  ape  was  at  the  head  of  the 
column  and  lord  of  creation,  that  animal  had  considered 
the  possibility  of  his  place  being  taken  by  so  poor  a  sort 
of  ape  as  man,  of  a  creature  so  soft  being  able  to  live  in 
a  world  so  hard  as  this,  when  even  he,  with  his  tough 
and  shaggy  hide,  long  arms,  strong  claws  and  great  jaws, 
had  to  struggle  to  hold  his  own,  he  would,  probably,  have 
seen  serious  difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  possibility,  and 
dismissed  the  subject  from  consideration  as  contemptu- 
ously as  he  would  have  regarded  the  idea  of  there  being 
needed  at  the  head  of  the  column  any  better  lord  of  crea- 
tion than  himself.  And  it  would  not  be  strange  if  mem- 
bers of  the  race  that  has  displaced  the  ape  should  see  many 
more  difficulties  than  those  which  have  been  suggested  in 
the  way  of  any  of  themselves  dwelling  in  deathless  per- 
sistence on  this  earth  that  has  so  long  been  much  more 
their  burial-place  than  dwelling-place.  But  more  than  a 
difficulty  is  involved  in  the  questions  at  once  arising: 
Whereabouts  in  the  world  do  yogis  who  have  become  im- 
mortal, keep  themselves  ?  Why  do  they  shun  intercourse 
with  us  poor  mortals,  their  descendants,  so  greatly  need- 
ing the  aid  and  guidance  of  their  superior  power  and  in- 
telligence ?  Or  is  their  philosophical  equanimity  so  per- 
fect that  human  concerns  no  longer  interest  them,  and 


843  EARTHLY  IMMORTALITY. 

they  still  remain  in  that  state  of  stupidity  in  which,  as 
John  of  the  Cross  says,  the  Christian  contemplative  has 
miraculous  aid  from  his  God  in  attending  to  his  temporal 
affairs,  but  for  which  purpose  the  Hindus  say  any  careful 
man  will  do  ?  Or  are  they,  on  the  other  hand,  wise 
enough  to  know  the  secrets  of  nature  and  that  all  is 
going  on  as  well  as  it  can,  and  also  know  themselves  too 
ignorant  to  judge  the  scheme  of  the  universe,  or  shake 
the  jar  wherein  human  destiny  is  solving  itself  ?  To  keep 
out  of  the  way  do  they  magically  render  themselves  in- 
visible to  mortal  sight,  or  take  themselves  out  of  reach 
of  any  mortal  sense,  by  rising  in  the  air  as  Elijah  did,  or 
like  Moses  burying  themselves — performing  the  Khechari 
Mudra,  and  with  tongues  uprolled  hybernating  in  inac- 
cessible caves  ? 

But,  notwithstanding  the  peculiar  adaptation  of  the 
Siddhis  in  their  possible  unlimited  development  to  ren- 
dering possible  terrestrial  immortality,  and  of  those  just 
mentioned  to  keeping  mortals  separate  from  immortals 
during  a  supposable  transitional  period  in  which  both 
should  inhabit  the  same  earth,  one  of  them,  invisibility, 
being  apparently  of  no  use  for  any  other  purpose,  the 
only  safe  couclusion  is  a  denial  that  any  such  immortals 
exist. 

But  such  a  conclusion  must  still  leave  the  Siddhis  as 
well  proved  as  before — and  as  unexplained.  Had  our 
race  ever  been  endowed  with  immortality  they  would 
have  been  essential  supports  to  it;  if  it  is  destined  ever 
to  be  so  endowed,  they  are  a  needed  preparation  for  it; 
if  either  is  to  come  before  the  other,  it  is,  of  course,  the 
preparation,  and  not  the  thing  prepared  for.  It  makes 
for  nothing  against  the  reality  of  the  Siddhis  that  the  state 
of  being  they  are  adapted  to  has  not  yet  arrived,  though 
it  makes  for  much  in  favor  of  the  future  realization  of  it 
that  they  have  come,  or  are  coming,  in  quantity  however 
scant  as  yet,  while  their  adaptation  to  it  makes  them  the 


EARTHLY  IMMORTALITY.  343 

logical  harbingers  of  it.  Thus  the  reasons  hereinbefore 
supposed  to  have  caused  in  the  Taoist  and  Hindu  sages' 
minds  the  belief  that  some  of  their  number  had  already 
achieved  immortality  of  the  sort  in  question,  namely,  the 
adaptation  to  it  of  magically  obtained  immunity  from  bod- 
ily wear  and  tear,  disease,  poison,  violence,  accidental 
burning,  freezing,  drowning,  suffocation,  crushing  by 
rocks,  poverty  and  evil  magic,  though  failing  to  justify 
the  belief  in  question,  stand  nevertheless  good  for  the 
supposition  that  the  possession  of,  or  ability  to  acquire 
such  immunity,  evinces  Nature's  intent  at  some  epoch  in 
the  future  to  bring  about  the  state  of  things  for  which  it 
will  come  in  play.  The  way  Nature  faces  she  will  surely 
go.  Her  intention  can  be  inferred  from  her  acts.  Do 
her  acts  allow  us  to  expect  her  next  step  to  be  in  the 
direction  of  making  this  earth  man's  permanent  home  ? 
A  population  of  reproductive  immortals  no  globe  could 
long  contain.  A  world  without  love  no  one  would  wish 
to  inhabit  for  any  life  term — long  or  short.  The  Taoist 
and  Hindu  yogis  lately  quoted  do  not  seem  to  have  con- 
sidered these  two  little  difficulties.  Swedenborgdid,  and 
avoided  them  by  allowing  his  immortals  to  beget  as 
many  "goods  and  truths  "  as  they  should  desire  to  be- 
get, instead  of  children.  But  if  certain  strenuously  as- 
serted facts  are  true,  a  better  plan  has  been  devised  by 
Nature,  which  is  this:  Along  with  the  Siddhis,  and  as  re- 
sults of  the  same  course  of  practice  which  produces 
them,  there  comes  sterility  to  man  and  barrenness  to 
woman,  from  whom  both  her  curse  and  lesser  curse  take 
themselves  away  forever.  See  again  what  has  been 
quoted  from  Saint  John  of  the  Cross  concerning  the 
dying  out  of  the  natural,  and  the  arising  in  its  place  of 
the  spiritual  love;  also  what  has  been  quoted  concerning 
the  "secret  or  mysterious  love "  of  the  Sufis,  concerning 
the  "amatory  mania"  mentioned  with  so  much  respect 
by  Plato,  and  about  Krishna,   whose  twelve  thousand 


344  EARTHLY  IMMORTALITY. 

human  misery  no  longer  touches  their  hearts  ?  Or  do 
wives,  for  whom  he  multiplied  himself  into  twelve  thou- 
sand husbands,  lauded  his  complaisance  as  all  the  more 
wonderful  for  the  reason  that  being  a  god  he  needed  no 
human  mate,  having  all  joy  within  himself,  and  other 
passages  having  a  direct  or  indirect  bearing  on  the  im- 
portant bodily  transformation  in  question. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

YOGA  AS  A  PROCESS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

In  the  mind  of  him  who  observes  the  course  of  man's 
evolution  in  the  past,  and  judges  Nature's  intention  by 
her  acts,  three  presumptions  will  arise. 

1.  That  because  this  material  globe  has  hitherto  been 
the  scene  of  operations,  it  will  continue  to  be  so  hence- 
forth. 

2.  That  because  the  beginning  was  indefinitely  long 
ago,  the  end  will  be  indefinitely  long  hence. 

3.  That  because  the  transformations  have  until  now 
been  from  the  less  perfect  to  the  more  perfect,  with  a 
general  tendency,  at  least,  toward  the  avoidance  of  evil 
and  attainment  of  good,  man's  destiny  is  to  continually 
become  more  perfect  and  more  happy,  though  probably 
never  absolutely  so. 

These  constitute,  as  it  seems  to  me,  a  presumption  in 
favor  of  a  happy  immortality  being  in  store  for  man  upon 
the  earth  where  he  was  born  and  has  always  dwelt,  so 
strong  as  to  put  on  the  defensive  every  theory  to  the 
contrary.  Of  the  slime  of  that  earth  the  egg  of  his  be- 
ginning was  formed,  in  its  mud  as  a  worm  he  crawled,  in 
its  waters  as  a  fish  he  swam,  in  its  forests  and  on  its 
mountains  as  a  mammal  he  foraged  for  fruits  and  nuts, 
or  killed  and  ate  or  was  killed  or  eaten.  And  now,  after 
having  during  a  course  of  time  infinitely  long  attained  to 
a  state  wherein  he  can  turn  and  lay  his  creative  hand  on 
it,  make  its  surface  productive  and  its  aspect  beautiful, 
open  roadways  and  water-ways  to  bring  all  its  parts  into 
neighborhood,  control  its   floods   and   pierce   its   rocks; 


346  YOGA  AS  A  PROCESS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

why  should  he  not,  as  mortal  or  immortal  and  through 
all  future  changes  continue  where  he  is? 

During  incalculable  time  animal  life  has,  by  successive 
growths,  produced  man,  each  growth  consisting  of  a  new 
species  produced  from  the  one  next  preceding  it.  Some 
of  these  species  have  in  course  of  time  disappeared,  while 
some  remain  ;  but  hitherto  the  existence  of  none  of  them 
has  required  the  extinction  of  any  other,  and  without 
serious  hindrance  to  man  a  vast  population  of  fishes, 
reptiles,  birds  and  beasts,  some  lineal  and  others  collat- 
erally related  to  him,  occupy  the  same  globe  with  him; 
but  how  will  it  be  in  the  future  ?  Judging  by  analogy, 
man  should  produce,  when  progress  resumes  its  march, 
a  race  superior  to  him,  and  this  another  superior  to  it, 
and  so  on,  growth  after  growth,  reaching  as  indefinitely 
far  into  time  to  come  as  the  procession  at  his  back 
reaches  into  time  gone,  and  developing  stage  by  stage 
into  something  as  superior  to  him  as  the  worm  is  inferior. 
And  whether  each  race  is,  as  some  suppose,  doomed  after 
reaching  its  prime  to  degenerate,  or  is  destined  to  con- 
tinually perfect  itself,  the  existence  of  any  one  of  them 
comtemporaneously  with  any  other  would  seem  to  be  im- 
possible, even  were  the  contemporaries  the  present  man 
and  his  immediate  successor;  much  more  so  the  exist- 
ence of  an  indefinitely  numerous  congress  of  such  une- 
qually developed  races. 

Evidently,  if  evolution  is  to  go  any  further,  there  must 
be  a  change  of  method. 

Natural  selection  which,  according  to  Wallace,  has 
hitherto  done  all,  but  according  to  Darwin  only  part,  of 
the  work  on  man — a  process  of  exhaustive  reproduction 
and  wasteful  slaughter — is  a  principle  that  must  always 
operate  while  the  population  of  the  globe  consists  of 
procreating  mortals;  yet  it  is  not  itself  exempt  from  the 
law  of  evolution.  As  the  agency  for  carrying  the  race 
further  on  the  way  to  perfection,  it  may  have  to  yield 
place  to  the  slower,  more  interior  method  of  transforma- 


YOGA  AS  A  PROCESS  OF  EVOLUTION.  347 

tion,  which  yoga  is.  In  fact,  the  development  of  man 
from  the  ape,  the  links  needed  to  prove  which  to  have 
been  done  by  natural  selection  are  still  missing,  though 
searched  for  from  cellar  to  garret,  may  have  been  the 
work  of  yoga.  Just  how  nature  will  manage  it  all  is  her 
own  secret,  but  a  guess  may  be  ventured  that  it  will  be 
by  the  simple  process  of  transforming  the  race  from  a 
mortal  into  an  immortal  state  of  being,  as  the  sages  of 
old  insisted  had  in  numerous  cases  already  been  done, 
but  which,  for  reasons  before  stated,  it  is  safer  to  look 
for  as  yet  to  be  done,  if  to  be  done  ever.  Such  a  process 
would  comport  with  nature's  well-known  habits  of  econ- 
omizing force,  going  to  her  ends  by  the  shortest  way, 
moving  on  lines  of  least  resistance,  taking  advantage  of 
favoring  winds,  currents  and  other  accidents,  using  old 
material  so  far  as  applicable,  and  preferring  to  graft  the 
buds  of  differentiation  on  stocks  already  existing  to  up- 
rooting and  planting  anew,  and  is,  in  fact,  her  habit  in  the 
evolution  of  the  foetus.  Thus  would  death  be  cast  into 
the  same  pit  where  hell  is  already  tumbling,  death  fulfill- 
ing scripture  by  going  in  last. 

A  world  of  such  immortals,  enjoying  perpetual  youth 
and  beauty  and  all  the  magical  qualities  and  powers  of 
which  the  Siddhis  are  but  the  rudiments,  where,  in  the 
absence  of  old  age,  infancy  and  disease,  there  would  be 
no  poverty  or  crime,  laws  or  rules,  nor  aught  to  hinder 
freedom,  where,  if  labor  should  be  found  inconvenient, 
all  the  movements  of  it  could  be  transferred  to  the  juris- 
diction of  the  unconscious  mind,  as  has  been  done  with 
the  vegetative  movements  of  the  body,  and  in  the  same 
automatic,  habitual  infallible  way  that  these  are  per 
formed  all  wants  supplied;  or  where,  instead  of  this,  all 
ills  of  life  possible  to  an  immortal  could  be  nullified  by 
his  simply  lapsing  into  that  state  of  apathetic  equanim- 
ity wherein  even  the  spectacle  of  the  sacking  of  a  city 
would  in  no  wise  annoy  him — such  a  world  would,  at  first 
thought,   seem  to  human  reason  above    criticism.     Yet 


348  YOGA  AS  A  PROCESS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

there  is  room  for  cavil  after  all ;  would  it  not  be  a  tire- 
some world? 

Death,  in  the  sense  of  final  annihilation,  if  such  can 
be,  cannot  be  called  an  evil,  for,  as  the  stoic  said: 
"Where  I  am  death  is  not,  and  where  death  is  I  am 
not."  But  all  men  can  foresee  that  soon  or  late  the 
tedium  of  the  most  paradisical  existence  must  convert 
itself  into  torment.  Now  this  last  difficulty  was  plainly 
foreseen  and  provided  for  in  both  the  old  Taoist  and 
Hindu  systems.  The  Hindu  immortal  could  die  at  will, 
and  go  to  Brahman ;  and  the  mere  knowledge  of  this,  it 
is  conceivable,  might  make  it  agreeable  to  continue  in 
life,  just  as  one  in  a  box  with  a  lid  loosely  laid  on  might 
comfortably  and  quietly  remain  there  for  hours,  and  even 
fall  asleep,  but  should  others  attempt  to  screw  down  the 
lid,  would  yell  in  agony  and  struggle  with  all  his  might 
to  get  out.  But  better  than  the  power  to  die  at  will  was 
the  promise  held  out  to  the  Taoist  saint,  of  undying 
change,  each  transition  being  from  good  to  better,  for 
such  is  the  meaning  of  the  notable  words  of  Chuang-Tsu, 
already  quoted,  but  worth  many  times  quoting:  "To 
have  attained  to  the  human  form  must  always  be  a  source 
of  joy.  And  then  to  undergo  countless  transitions,  with 
only  the  infinite  to  look  forward  to — what  incomparable 
bliss  is  that!  " 

Here  is  no  revelation,  no  outgiving  of  mystical  intui- 
tion— neither  Lao-Tsee  nor  his  disciple  had  to  do  with 
such — but  simply  the  statement  of  an  inference  of  the 
human  reason,  drawn  from  the  analogies  of  nature,  and 
which  presupposes  a  knowledge  of  the  evolution  of  man 
in  a  like  way  obtained. 

That  man,  considered  as  a  physical  organism,  after 
undergoing  an  indefinite  number  of  transitions  bringing 
him  up  to  what  he  now  is,  should  be  destined  to  undergo 
an  indefinite  number  more,  carrying  him  still  farther  on 
the  way  to  perfection,  should  seem  to  us  not  absurd,  but 
most  reasonable  rather,  even  though  we  cannot  so  much 


YOGA  AS  A  PROCESS  OF  EVOLUTION.  349 

as  dream  what  they  are  to  be  or  whither  lead,  while  all 
concern  we  may  feel  about  nature's  ability  to  effect  them 
in  some  way  or  other  of  her  own  ought  to  be  quieted  by 
a  glance  backward  at  what  she  has  already  achieved. 
No  one  can  give  a  reason  why  the  chain  of  causation 
should  stop  at  man  that  would  not  also  be  a  reason  for 
its  stopping  at  the  ape,  to  whose  comprehension  his  des- 
tiny to  evolve  into  man  could  have  got  no  access,  any 
more  than  man's  destiny  to  become  something  as  superior 
to  what  he  now  is,  as  he  is  now  superior  to  the  ape,  to 
become  immortal  in  the  flesh,  could  be  grasped  by  his. 

However  all  this  may  be,  do  not  these  theories  of  old 
China  and  India  show  better  grounds  for  themselves 
than  any  others  that  have  got  into  vogue,  relating  to 
man's  destiny?  In  all  others,  terrestrial  immortality  not 
being  supposed,  there  is  necessarily  introduced  the  sup- 
position of  a  soul  capable  of  existence  separate  from  a 
body,  and  this  is  what  Kant  demonstrated  could  not  be 
demonstrated,  owing  to  the  forms  of  knowledge  of  the 
human  intellect.  But  supposing  it  proved,  in  any  of  the 
modes  hitherto  relied  on,  there  would  still  remain  to  be 
answered  the  question,  when,  where,  and  how  the  eter- 
nal life  of  the  soul  is  to  be  lived? 

We  have  seen  in  the  chapters  on  modern  spiritualism 
and  ancestor  worship  what  the  best  answers  yet  given  to 
these  questions  amount  to.  They  are  best  because  they 
give  bodies  to  their  souls  just  like  those  they  had  in  earth- 
life,  only  of  thinner  stuff,  and  out  of  the  same  kind  of 
stuff  make  a  world  just  like  this  one  for  them  so  em- 
bodied to  inhabit.  Without  a  physical  man  and  earth  to 
copy  from  the  constructors  of  the  "  land  of  the  fathers," 
of  the  "land  of  the  gods,"  of  "the  world  of  spirits," 
which  certainly  are  the  most  credible  and  therefore  best 
believed  in  of  all  the  modes  of  immortality  yet  conceived 
of,  might  have  produced  nothing  better  than  others  have; 
and  even  they,  in  respect  to  providing  food  for  spirits 
assumed  to  be  organized  just  like  the  hungry  people  of 


350  YOGA  AS  A  FHOCESS  OF  EVOLUTION. 

earth,  have  left  their  work  sadly  incomplete.  Plainly  a 
mode  of  immortality  in  the  flesh  and  on  the  earth  must 
have  the  same  advantage  over  these  that  an  original  has 
over  a  copy.  There  are  other  theories,  which  furnish  a 
subtle  body  to  encase  the  soul,  in  order  to  its  enjoying 
reward  or  suffering  punishment,  but  such  bodies,  includ- 
ing those  worn  in  the  lands  of  the  fathers  and  of  the  gods, 
are  but  temporary,  and  when  finally  they  are  shed  the 
bare  incorporeal  supposition  goes  naked  to  its  eternity. 
The  Christian  theory,  according  to  which  the  soul  leaves 
the  body  at  death  and  afterwards  returns  to  it  again,  is 
until  such  return  peculiarly  incredible,  and  gets  still  more 
so  afterwards.  The  idea  of  terrestrial  immortality  is 
happily  unincumbered  with  the  idea  of  soul.  To  have 
assurance  of  it  one  need  not  be  either  a  spiritualist  or  re- 
ligionist, need  not  believe  that  what  he  recognizes  as  his 
soul,  came  down  from  the  skies,  or  that  it  originated  with 
his  body,  that  it  is  an  entity,  or  a  mere  result  of  the  play 
of  the  forces  of  his  animal  organism.  Whichever  of  these 
suppositions  be  true,  or  if  none  of  them  be,  it  is  all  the 
same  to  the  expectant  of  a  life  to  which  death  is  neither 
the  beginning  nor  the  end.  He  knows  that  he  now  lives 
and  knows  how  he  lives,  and  sees  no  difficulty  in  remaining 
where  he  is  and  doing  as  he  does.  While  the  hypothesis 
of  the  immortality  of  the  body  is  no^  more  necessarily 
connected  with  religious  belief  than  any  other  scientific 
hypothesis  would  be,  that  of  the  immortality  of  a  detach- 
able soul  is  so  complicated  with  such  belief  that  in  order 
to  know  what  is  to  become  of  him  when  he  dies,  a  man 
has  to  find  out  which  one  of  the  many  religions  is  true,  a 
rather  difficult  task.  If  Hinduism  be  true,  he  is  sure,  in 
time,  to  get  back  to  Brahman;  if  Christianity,  he  is  to 
undergo  his  eternity  either  in  a  heaven  where,  for  all  we 
are  told  by  those  who  claim  to  know,  there  is  nothing  to 
beguile  his  e7i?iui  for  even  one  week,  or  in  a  hell,  where, 
according  to  the  same  authority,  the  vast  majority  of  us 
are  to  suffer  in  a  way  that  if  really  believed  in  by  any 


YOGA  AS  A  PROCESS  OF  EVOLUTION.  351 

truly  good  man  in  the  same  way  that  he  is  able  to  believe 
in  the  ordinary  occurrences  of  life,  he  would  immediately 
die  shrieking  in  sympathetic  agony. 

(It  is  true  that  some  Christians  say  they  have  changed 
all  that,  and  that  there  is  to  be  no  hell;  but  others  say 
there  is,  and  they  are  the  wisest  supporters  of  their  faith; 
for  if  there  is  to  be  no  hell  for  Christians  there  cannot  be 
any  heaven  for  them,  the  two  resting  on  one  and  the 
same  authority.)  Thus  incorporeal  immortality,  of  itself 
quite  hard  enough  to  believe  in,  is  made  vastly  more  so  by 
the  added  incredibilities  of  the  religions  which  patronize 
it;  by  the  incredible  absurdities  of  their  heavens  and  the 
incredible  horrors  of  their  hells.  Corporeal  immortality, 
on  the  other  hand  requires,  in  order  to  obtain  belief,  only 
the  same  kind  of  experimental  knowledge  and  the  same 
modes  of  reasoning  all  of  us  are  accustomed  to  form  our 
judgments  on  in  everyday  life;  whether  those  avail  to 
prove  it  is  another  thing. 

To  the  reasons  which  have  been  given  as  having  possibly 
led  the  Taoist  to  infer  that  the  future  transformations  of 
man  were  to  be  in  his  present  accustomed  home,  another 
may  be  added,  which  is  that  Nature's  habit  is  to  take  no 
leaps.  To  go  on  with  the  task  of  perfecting  man  grad- 
ually and  slowly  would  be  in  conformity  to  that  habit;  to 
kill  him,  in  order  to  get  his  soul  out  of  him  and  then  send 
it,  an  unknown  thing,  to  dwell  in  the  unknown,  would  not; 
it  would  be  a  leap,  and  a  leap  in  the  dark. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

CONCLUSION. 

But  now  let  us  put  aside  the  hypothesis  that  yoga  is  a 
promise  of  terrestrial  immortality,  as  we  already  have  the 
hypothesis  that  it  is  the  realization  of  it,  and  see  if  the 
problem  it  presents  is  made  any  easier  by  stripping  it  of 
these.  If  the  wonderful  and  manifold  facts  attendant  on 
the  yoga  movement  (counting  only  such  as  are  experi- 
mentally demonstrable),  which  have  been  set  in  array  in 
the  foregoing  pages,  mean  neither  coming  immortality 
nor  immortality  to  come,  what  do  they  mean  ?  At  the 
least  they  mean  the  transformation  of  the  practicer  from 
an  inferior  into  a  superior  man,  which  transformation 
consists  in  the  acquisition  of  magical  qualities  and  powers, 
the  totality  of  which  is  nothing  less  than  the  whole  body 
of  magic.  The  data  also  show  that  magical  quality  and 
power  are  personal  endowments,  as  much  so  as  intel- 
lectual clearness  or  muscular  energy,  and  as  direct  in 
their  operation  as  these,  that  operation  not  being  de- 
pendent on  knowledge  of  any  art  or  mystery,  as  some 
magicians  have  pretended,  nor  on  the  presence  or  aid  of 
gods,  spirits  or  demons,  as  others  have,  the  operator 
doing  all  in  virtue  of  his  transformed  nature.  He  has  been 
created  a  magician  by  work  done  on  his  body  which  has 
improved  it  into  a  better  instrument  than  it  was  for  feel- 
ing, knowing  and  doing;  and  we  do  not  know  that  any- 
thing else  is  needed  to  be  done.  He  may  fancy  he  has 
been  exalted  to  be  a  god,  and  so  may  others,  but  he  has 
only  grown  more  perfect  as  a  man.  He  has  been  taken  up 
by  the  evolutionary  movement  and  carried  a  stage  fur- 
ther on  his  destined  way,  not  by  natural  selection  which 


CONCLUSION.  353 

calls  death  to  its  aid,  and  looks  very  much  like  chance, 
but  by  transformation,  which  comes  with  an  augmented 
flow  of  life,  and  looks  very  much  like  design.  That 
movem.ent  may  be  presumed  to  have  taken  hold  on  man 
as  early  as  he  was  able  to  receive  it,  to  have  reached  its 
fullest  power  as  soon  as  the  progress  of  civilization  had 
secured  the  proper  conditions  for  it,  and  to  have  ever 
been  ready  to  enter  into  and  abide  with  whoever  would 
receive  it. 

I  have  said  that  the  Siddhis,  wonderful  as  they  are, 
and  able  to  support  all  religion  and  much  philosophy,  re- 
mained yet  quantitatively  scant,  and  so  had  been  treated 
by  the  world  at  large,  its  churches  and  states,  as  unim- 
portant, evil  or  unreal,  which  ill-reception  and  maltreat- 
ment has,  by  reacting  on  them,  in  turn  become  a  cause 
working  to  render  them  more  scanty  still.  But  there 
have  been  many  other  causes,  to  wit,  such  as  hinder  all 
development  that  depends  on  the  human  intellect. 

When  the  first  distaff  was  wrapped  with  wool,  and  the 
first  spindle  twirled,  the  present  spinning-jenny  was 
begun.  When  first  an  ox  was  made  to  tread  out  corn, 
and  the  corn  crushed  between  two  stones,  the  thresh- 
ing machine  and  new  process  flour-mill  were  effectively 
prophesied.  But  how  long  have  these  industrial  inven- 
tions been  in  coming  !  The  world  is  young  and  growth 
is  slow,  and  the  development  of  magical  methods,  which 
could  not  certainly  have  begun  any  earlier  than  that  of 
industrial  ones,  has  had  hindrances  peculiar  to  itself. 
Religion  has  drunk  up  magic  as  a  desert  would  a  river. 
Heredity,  which  has  so  large  a  part  in  the  other  modes 
of  evolution,  plays  little  or  no  part  in  this,  since  celibacy 
is  the  prevailing  condition  of  it,  and  its  practice  by  celi- 
bates sterilizes.  Thus  the  sphere  and  scope  of  the  mag- 
ical movement  has  been  confined  within  very  close  limits, 
the  practicer  being  in  life  cut  off  from  all  that  concerns 
life,  and  in  death  dropping  his  body  with  all  its  painfully- 
won  acquisitions.    The  fittest  are  in  this  way  selected  to 


354  CONCLUSION. 

die  without  progeny  to  inherit  their  fitness,  and  the  least 
fit  selected  to  survive  in  offspring  who  inherit  their 
parents'  unfitness.  Painful  and  repulsive  austerities,  im- 
parted by  religion  to  yoga,  have  restricted  its  spread 
among  the  people,  confining  its  sphere  to  the  more  fanat- 
ical members  of  society,  excluding  from  it  the  open  day- 
light of  common  sense,  which  would  have  aided  it  in 
improving  its  methods.  But  a  still  greater  disadvantage 
has  arisen  from  its  recondite  nature  in  the  shape  of  labo- 
rious and  tedious  methods,  erroneously  supposed  to  be 
necessary. 

Yoga  being  a  movement  of  nature,  from  her  ought  to 
come  all  needed  instruction  in  the  practice  of  it;  nor 
have  these  been  withheld.  The  Rajah  yogists,  as  we  have 
seen,  assert  that  simple  concentration  of  the  mind  can 
set  up  in  the  body  all  the  breathings  and  other  move- 
ments in  the  intentional  practice  of  which  Hatha  Yoga 
consists,  and  this  assertion  the  American  experiences 
prove  to  be  true.  Here,  then,  are  revealed  the  require- 
ments of  nature  respecting  method,  and,  in  the  absence 
of  other  requirements  in  the  same  way  revealed,  the  pre- 
sumption is  that  all  else  is  extraneous  and  needless. 
Thus  nature  has  in  an  experimental  way,  whose  meaning 
none  need  miss  of,  told  man  what  to  do  in  order  to 
attain  yoga.  But  then  do  those  on  whom  she  thus  acts 
need  instruction  ?  It  would  seem  not,  for  she  takes  hold 
and  does  the  practicing  herself.  The  question  here 
arises:  Can  all  men,  by  simply  stilling  their  minds  by 
means  of  concentration,  come  to  be  thus  acted  on  ?  If 
there  are  any  who  cannot,  then  for  such  the  experiences 
of  those  who  can  and  are  should  serve  as  instruction,  and 
the  one  class  may  be  said  to  be  in  this  way  told  how  to 
attain  to  yoga,  while  the  other  may  be  said  to  be  taken  up 
and  carried  there.  Probably  if  there  be  such  difference 
in  aptitude,  it  may  depend  on  difference  in  the  power  of 
concentration,  which  all  know  to  be  very  great.  But 
inasmuch  as  all  men  have  the  power  in  some  degree,  it 


CONCLUSION.  355 

is  possible  that  all  may  sooner  or  later  attain.  In  so 
great  a  movement  as  the  taking  of  the  next  step  in  the 
evolution  of  man,  to  trust  to  his  contrivance  or  his  voli- 
tion, would  be  inconsistent  with  the  habits  of  our  mother, 
and  this  is  another  reason  for  inferring  that  all  men  are 
born  with  aptitude  enough  for  her  purpose.  But  in  any 
case  she  must  be  supposed  to  have  indicated  in  the  move- 
ments in  question  the  whole  method  of  yoga  practice 
needed  as  yet,  and  that  no  movement  that  will  not  come, 
whether  to  some  men  or  all,  as  result  of  simple  concen- 
tration should  be  esteemed  good  practice. 

The  improvement  of  method  has  hereto  largely  con- 
sisted in  disencumbering  it  of  painful,  laborious  and 
tedious  austerities.  It  was  to  so  disencumber  Hindu 
Yoga  that  Sankaracharya  wrote  the  commentary  on  the 
Vedanta  before  alluded  to,  or  to  give  the  words  of  his 
disciple :  *'  To  point  out  that  the  knowledge  of  Brahman  is 
the  only  certain  way  of  obtaining  liberation,  instead  of  the 
severe  mortifications  which  mankind  at  present  are  in- 
capable of  performing."  Old  Taoism  seems  to  have 
flung  out  as  early  as  Lao-Tsee's  time  all  that  could  be 
called  "severe  mortifications,"  if  such  ever  had  a  place 
in  its  method  of  practice.  John  of  the  Cross,  and  his 
Carmelites  of  the  bitterly  severe  unmitigated  rite,  heaped 
absurdities  and  cruelties  on  themselves,  but  soon  after 
him  came  Molinos,  with  his  "new  method"  in  which 
penance  had  no  place,  and  other  religious  performances 
very  little,  and  got  excellent  results.  In  like  manner 
with  the  acquisition  of  the  siddhis  the  exercise  of  them 
has  been  much  simplified.  Paracelsus  discarded  all 
magical  ritual  and  proclaimed  that  it  was  the  imagination 
alone  that  did  all.  Gessner,  who  cured  tens  of  thousands 
by  true  magic,  thought  it  necessary  to  wear  a  scarlet 
cloak,  a  silken  sash  and  a  silver  chain  from  which  hung 
a  fragment  of  the  veritable  cross,  to  pronounce  the  name 
of  Jesus  in  exorcising  disease  and  talk  to  the  devil  in 
Latin.     When  Mesmer  was  told  of  all  this  he  declared 


856  CONCL  USION. 

that  the  toggery  and  other  accessories  were  useless  and 
that  the  cures  were  performed  by  what  he  called  "mag- 
netic spiritual  excitement,"  and  proved  it  to  the  satis- 
faction of  the  Elector  of  Bavaria.  But  when  Mesmer 
himself  undertook  to  exhibit  before  a  scientific  committee 
the  wonders  of  animal  magnetism,  he  too  thought  it 
necessary  to  have  his  accessories  in  shape  of  a  chemical 
apparatus  equally  useless  with  those  of  Gessner — that  is 
to  say,  so  thought  until  it  was  demonstrated  that  he  could 
do  just  as  good  work  without  them;  which  caused  the 
wiseacres  of  science,  who  witnessed  both  results,  to  decide 
that  what  could  be  done  in  two  ways  could  be  done  in 
none,  and  that  one  of  the  greatest  lights  of  his  age  was 
an  impostor. 

Since  then  mesmerism  has  been  still  more  simplified, 
so  that  a  glance  of  the  eye,  a  few  words  or  an  unspoken 
thought  will  often  produce  as  good  effects  as  laborious 
manipulation  of  tedious  duration  formerly  did.  All  which 
shows  that  magic  can  progress  as  well  as  other  things; 
and  it  must  be  that  soon  or  late  it  will  fling  off  all  remain- 
ing encumbrances  and,  freed  from  them,  seek  for  and  find 
as  time  goes  on  better  and  still  better  modes  of  practice 
until  perfection  of  method  is  reached. 

As  objects  of  concentration  the  sensations  have  hith- 
erto not  been  wholly  neglected.  The  practicer  is  early 
encouraged  by  agreeable  visitations  through  the  channels 
of  each  sense  in  turn,  and  later  becomes  able  at  will  to 
summon  to  their  gratification  lights,  colors  and  forms, 
music,  scents,  tastes  and  touches  of  sweetness;  and  the 
witches'  sleep  and  the  lover's  swoon  prove  that  sensations 
of  touch,  at  least,  may  be  intensified  to  an  extent  that 
has  no  limit  short  of  loss  of  consciousness  in  samadhi. 
What  is  thus  proved  true  of  one  sense  is  inferentially  true 
of  the  four  others  as  well.  Thus  the  possibility  of  im- 
proving method  by  simply  intensifying  sensation  to  a 
degree  from  which  the  practicer's  attention  will  not  be 
able  to  escape,  and  where  perfect  and  absolute  concen- 


CONCLUSION.  357 

tration  will  be  assured,  is  great  enough  to  permit  the 
conjecture  that  by  this  way  of  the  senses  alone  yoga 
methods  may  at  some  age  in  the  future  attain  such  per- 
fection that  all  will  be  allured  to  practice  them,  and  that 
too  in  the  thorough  way  that  has  heretofore  distinguished 
only  two  or  three  in  a  century  of  even  the  thorough-going 
Hindu  sages,  and  the  whole  race  of  man  become  yogis. 


INDEX. 


Abaris,  Celtic  priest,  334. 

Abraham,  Fatlier,  the  Jews  clamoring  for  him  in  the  world  of  spirits,  102. 

Adam,  The  children  of,  their  sins,  133. 

Age,  The  Golden,  did  it  ever  exist  ?,  143. 

Agrippa,  King,  Saul's  vision,  132. 

Ahab,  King,  and  Elijah,  241. 

Ahaziah,  King,  and  Elijah,  241. 

Akasa,  soniferous  ether,  191. 

Akasa,  ether  of  sound,  182. 

Akkadian  Yoga,  226. 

Alexander's  army  saved  by  an  apparition  in  the  conventional  form  of 
Bacchus,  5. 

Allabha,  249. 

Allat,  "the  lady  of  the  great  country"  v/here  the  Chaldeans  believed 
all  the  dead  went  to,  29. 

Allat,  ruler  of  the  Chaldean  hell,  233, 

Amaroli,  167, 

"Amatory  Mania,"  Plato  on,  319. 

America,  Subjective  yoga  in,  127. 

American  experiments  similar  in  results  to  the  Mudras  in  stilling  the 
mind,  204. — Experiences,  169. — Healer  (Schlatter),  249. — Spiritual- 
ism, very  like  Chinese  Spiritualism,  64. — Protestantism,  135. 

Ananda,  249. 

Ancestor  worship  of  the  primitive  Hindus,  13. — Of  China,  62:  Its 
form,  65. — Japanese  and  general  ancestor  worship  defined,  70. 

Angels,  to  them  the  stench  of  hell  seems  vile,  99. 

Anhouri  at  Thenis,  25. 

Anou,  one  of  the  Trinity  of  the  early  Assyriologists,  27. 

Anthony,  Saint,  261. 

Anthropomorphic  Deities  of  Egyptian  theologians,  25. 

Anima  (one  of  the  eight  Siddhis),  i63. 

Apana  Bandha,  166. 

Apas,  191. 

Aphutus,  The  city  of,  saved  by  a  dream,  5. 

Apparitions,  2. 


360  INDEX. 

Apuleius,  308. 
Arlou,  29. 

Asanas,  a  posture,  171,  185. 

Asiatics  and  the  Church  of  Rome,  which  copied  the  other?,  59. 
Aspasia,  prayed  to  Venus  to  heal  the  growth  upon  her  face,  6. 
Assyriologists,   early,   believed  they  had  found    II,   Ilou,   Ra,  who  no 
more  existed  than  the  sovereign  god  whom  the  Egyptologists  imag- 
ined to  crown  the  Egyptian  Pantheon,  27. 
Astral,  a  vaporous  corpse,  82. 

Atheling,  King  Edgar,  his  home  in  the  spirit-world,  114. 
Athens,  The  Neoplatonic  school  at,  suppressed  by  Justinian's  edict,  36 
Atmadhyana,  condition  of  highest  joy,  186. 
Atman,  meaning  soul,  12. 

August  spirits.  The  shelf  of,  in  the  spirit  chamber,  71. 
Aurelius,  Marcus,  invocation  to  the  world,  126. 
Avesta.  The,  228. 

Avidya,  the  universe  as  man  knows  it,  13. 
Baal,  Priests  of,  gashing  themselves  with  knives,  61,  239. 
Baal-ze-bub,  God  of  Ekrop,  241. 

Babylonia  and  Egypt,  development  of  their  civilization,  142. 
Bacchus,  the  conventional  form  of  apparition  that  saved  Alexander's 

army,  5. 
Bacon,  Roger,  311,  316. 
Ballou,  A.  A.,  113. 

Bandhas,  The,  movements  of  the  internal  organs,  173. 
Barnumj  Father,  quoted,  149. 

Beelzebub,  does  not  do  duty  in  Swedenborg's  hell,  loi. 
Bel,  5. — The  earth,  one  of  the  Trinity  of  the  early  Assyriologists,  27. 
Beliefs,  Natural  and  institutional,  127. 
Benedict,  Saint,  26S. 
Bhairava,  249. 
Bhanuki,  249. 
Bible,  Hebrew,  251. 
Bilesa,  249. 
Bindunatha,  249. 
Bishop  Burnet  on  quietism,  281. 
Bliss,  315. 
Bodies,  why  they  need  the  soul's  presence,  Plotinus  quoted,  45. — Why 

souls  descend  into  them,  Plotinus  quoted,  45. 
Body  and  soul — The  composite  man,  Plotinus  quoted,  43. 
Boehme,  104. — In  a  trance,  198. — "The  Way  to  Christ,"  24S,  2S9. — 

Quoted,  336. 
Boethius,  298. 
Boston,  Thomas,  his  work  "The  Fourfold  States,"  54. 


INDEX.  361 

Bouillet,  note  to  the  composite  man,  45. — The  translator  and  editor  of 
Plotinus,  quoted,  of  the  system  of  the  two  impersonal  Trinities,  206. 

Bouvignon,  Antoinette,  of  La  Porte,  322. 

Brahman,  12,  205. 

Brahmandra,  The,  310.— The  centre  of  the  skull,  1S8. 

Brahmans,  Two,  one  an  impersonal  principle,  the  other  masculine  and 
personal,  10. 

Brahmins,  touching  a  corpse  is  pollution  to,  5S. 

Breath,  The  science  of,  190,  305. 

Breathings,  The,  301.— (Note),  302. 

Buddha,  249. 

Buddha's  doctrines,  quoted  from  Max  Muller,  9. 

Buddhism,  the  offshoot  of  Hinduism,  8. — Differences  between  it  and 
its  parent  Hinduism,  questions  and  answers,  17. — Has  crushed 
simple  ancestor  worship,  69. 

Burial,  The  Persian  mode  of  burial,  49, 

Burnet,  Bishop,  281. 

Burnouf,  Emile,  concerning  the  conversion  of  Paul,  132. 

Cadmus,  84. 

Calvin's  hate,  198. 

Carmelites,  The,  263. 

Catechism,  Italian,  under  sanction  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  matches 
Spurgeon's  statement  of  Hell,  57. 

Cave-dwellers,  Palaeolithic,  152. — Their  migrations,  158. 

Cecil,  Bishop,  the  murder  by  his  mob  of  Hypatia,  a  death-blow  to  the 
central  school  at  Alexandria,  36. 

Celibacy,  307. 

Chaldea,  All  Chaldeans  worshipped  all  the  gods  of  every  part  of,  27.— 
Old,  The  Gods  of,  I33- 

Chaldean  gods  opposed  by  powerful  devils,  28. — Souls,  27. 

Chaldeans,  The,  worshipped  their  dead  kings,  28. 

Chandeeswara,  249. 

Chalana,  Shakati,  one  of  the  ten  Mudras,  167. 

Charpati,  249. 

China,  Ancestor  worship  of,  62,  65. — Buddhism  carried  Hindu  Yoga 
into  it,  205. — Sitting  in  the  ancestral  chamber  resembles  a  family 
council,  72. — Souls,  62. — Spiritualism,  record  of  an  imperial  decree 
by  the  Emperor  Yao,  67. — Spiritualism,  very  Uke  American  Spirit- 
ualism, 68. — Yoga,  205. 

Chodi,  249. 

Chourangi,  249. 

Christendom,  The  morality  of,  135. 

Christian  devils  roaming  at  large,  28. — Souls,  49. — Trinity,  according 
to  Saint  Augustine,  205. — Yoga,  258. 


863  INDEX. 

Christianity  and  Buddhism,  alike  concerning  relic  worship,  58. — Has 
no  reason  to  be  proud  of  its  Chaldean  inheritance,  31. — Its  first 
claim  to  the  article  of  faith  in  the  resurrection  of  the  corpse,  49. 

Chuang-Tzu,  the  great  disciple  of  Lao-Tsee,  quoted  from  Giles'  trans- 
lation, 213. 

Church  of  Rome,  greedy  for  the  spoils  of  Paganism,  60. — Its  purgatory, 
134. — Of  the  new  Jerusalem,  105. 

Clairaudience,  182. 

Cloistered  Yoga,  2S3. 

Clothing,  spiritual,  115. 

Clovis,  King,  233. 

Combat,  The  singing  of  the  Eskimos,  147. 

Commandments,  The  Ten,  Jesus'  teachings,  133. 

Composite  man.  The,  Plotinus  quoted,  43. 

Concluding  remarks  on  Hindu  Yoga,  igg. 

Conclusion,  352. 

Conditions  of  yoga  practice,  296. 

Confucius  disturbed  Taoism  in  China,  205. — Regarding  the  next  life, 
72. — Taoism  preceded  him,  62. 

Confucianism  has  crushed  simple  ancestor  worship,  69. 

Conjugial  Love,  Swedenborg's  "Heaven  and  Hell,"  99. 

Conwell,  R.  H.,  his  "Travels  in  China,"  quoted  by  Dr.  Peebles,  66. 

Constantine,  Neoplatonism  vaunted  as  the  peculiar  endowment  of  the 
corporation  chartered  by  him,  37. 

Cosmos,  The,  11. 

Crantz,  quoted  by  Lubbock  in  "  Pre -historic  Times,"  147. 

Cumxan  Sibyl,  The,  311. 

Dalgairns,  Catholic  writer,  258. — Quoted,  260,  269. — David,  303. 

D'Assier,  3, 

Dead,  The  Chaldean,  quoted  from  M.  Maspero,  28. 

Dehasamya,  mental  straightening  of  the  body,  185. 

Des'a,  the  real  solitary  palace,  185. 

Desert,  Fathers  of  the,  25S. 

Devas,  lesser  gods,  166. 

Devil,  The,  and  the  Nun,  265. 

Devils,  of  Swedenborg,  99. 

Dhyana,  170,  314. 

Difficulties  in  the  way  of  earthly  immortality,  335. 

Diegesis,  Robert  Taylor's,  254, 

Drikathiti,  185. 

Du  Prel's  "Philosophy  of  Mysticism,"  245. 

Dwelling  place  between  re-incarnations  of  other  souls  than  sinful  ones, 
Plotinus  quoted,  47. 

Dwellings  in  the  spiritual  world,  110. 


INDEX.  363 

Ea,  the  water,  one  of  the  Trinity  of  the  early  Assyriologists,  27. 
Earthly  Immortality,  333. 
Ebing,  Von  Kraft,  317,  318,  321,  324. 

Egyptian,  supposed  belief  in  resurrection  of   the  body,   19. — Beliefs, 
their  contradictions,  20. — Burial,  22. — Magic,  reply  of  Jamblichus 
concerning,  219. — Souls,  18. — Stones  and  manuscripts,  their  various 
meanings  at  different  times  and  places,  24. — Yoga,  217. 
Ei,  Nose,  quoted  by  Sir  E.  Arnold,  about  ethical  diction  of  the  follow- 
ers of  Shintoism,  75. 
Eleusinian  Mysteries,  299. 
Elijah,  the  signs  he  gave,  240. 
Elisha,  the  signs  he  gave,  240. 

Embodiment  (of  soul  into  terrestrial  bodies),  Plotinus  quoted,  42. 
Emperor  of  China,  to  the  Pope,  touching  ancestor  worship,  64. 
Enoch,  251. 

Eskimo,  as  godless  as  he  is  good,  135. 

Eskimos,  their  type  and  numbers,  143. — Traces  of  the  ancient  race,  152. 
Esoteric  religion,  held  in  secret  by  the  Egyptian  priests,  not  disclosed,  2b. 
Essenes,  Yoga  of  the,  254. 
Ethics,  297. 

Ethnological  Society's  Journal,  quoted,  144. 
Evil,  Earthly  life  an,  12. 
Evolution  of  man  (Haeckel),  313.— The,  of  social  virtue,  138.— Yoga, 

as  a  process,  345. 
Fabricius,  of  the  Eskimos  says,  they  are  "  Sine  Domino  regunter,  aut 

consuetudine"  146. 
Fasting,  305. 

Father  Abraham  in  the  spirit-world,  5. 

Fathers  of  the  Desert,  258. 

Fetichist,  sexual,  324. 

Finns,  The,  Lenorment  quoted,  228. 

Flamel,  Nicholas,  316. 

Food,  Spiritual,  119. 

Forces,  Nature's  finer,  190. 

Four  elements.  The,  protesting  to  God,  the  Creator,  against  being  made 
the  receptacle  of  bodies,  19. 

Friars  of  the  Mitigation,  264. 

Garima  (one  of  the  eight  Siddhis),  168. 

Ganges  (Ida),  168. 

Genton,  Elizabeth  de,  317. 

Ghoda,  249. 

Ghost,  Holy,  288. 

Giles,  Chauncey,  Rev.,  his  address  before  the  convention  of  the  "  New 
Church,"  quoted,  88. 


364  INDEX. 

God,  Touches  of,  310. 

Gods,  The  land  of  the,  13. — Special    or    guardian,  27. — The  way  of, 

in  Shintoism,  70. 
Golden  age,  did  it  ever  exist?,   143. 
Goraksha,  249. 
Great  Power,  The,  191. 

Greek,  the  system,  in  time  of  Plato,  32. — Souls,  32. 
Greeks,  The,  and  Romans  united  the  soul  to  what  they  called  its  image, 

idol,  or  shade,  32. 
Griffis  upon  removal  of  Phallic  emblems,  in  Japan,  quoted,  73. 
Guillaume  Postel,  299. 
Gunas,  things  of  sense,  179. 
Guru,  a  teacher  of  Yoga,  167. 
Guyon,  Madame,  280,  320. 
Hades,  a  creation  of  Homer,  85. 
Haeckel,  on  the  evolution  of  man,  313. 
Hatha,  Breath  Yoga,  199. 
Hatha  Yoga,  163. 
"  Hatha  Yoga  Pradipika,"  163. 
Hathor,  or  Nit,  still  Hathor  or  Nit,  25. 
Healer  (Schlatter),  American,  249. 
Hearn,  quoted  re  the  household  element  in  Shinto,  71. 
Heaven,  Queen  of  (Japanese),  313. 
"  Heaven  and  Hell,"  Swedenborg's,  86. 
Hebrew  bible,  251. — Yoga,  239. 
Heliopolis,  Mummy  of  Tourmou  at,  25. 
Hell,  Swedenborg's,  130. — No  law  in,  98. 
Hera,  Mount,  232. 
"Hereafter,  Our  Homes  and  Our  Employments,"  by  Dr.  M.  Peebles, 

no. 
Here  and  Hereafter,  Punishment,  Plotinus  quoted,  46. 
Hermes  Trismegistus,  his  "Virgins  of  the  World,"  and  its  teachings,  iS. 
"Hiawatha,"  Longfellow's,  250. 
Hirata:  Commentary,  75,  78. 
Hindu  belief  about  the  soul,  12. — Scripture,  primitive,  163. — Souls,  8. — 

Karma,  131. — Yoga,  150,  161. 
Hindus,  their  way  of  the  gods,  71. 
Hinduism  in  full  life  to-day,  8. — Its  essential  nature  the  greatest  and 

most  admirable  philosophical  system  in  the  world,  8. — Its  toleration, 

129. — Punishes  no  man  for  his  religious  faith,  10. 
Hinduists,  some  who  say  that  when  a  dying  mortal  casts  his  body  into 

the  grave  he  also  casts  a  vaporous  "astral  "  upon  the  air,  82. 
HoUis-liilling,  Mrs.,  her  seances,  7. 
Holy  Communion,  copies  the  old  Pagan  feasts  of  the  dead,  61. 


INDEX.  365 

Holy  Ghost,  288. 

Holy  Spirit,  272. 

Horrors,  The,  274, 

Household  element.  The,  essential  to  ancestor  worship  in  the  Shinto,  71. 

Hymns,  Upanishads  and  Vedic,  128. 

Hypatia,  her  murder  by  the  mob,  36. 

Ida,  the  left  nostril,  164. 

Ignorance,  nescience,  the  creator  of  the  universe,  11. 

II,  and  Ilou,  supreme  gods  whom  the  early  Assyriologists  believed  they 
had  found,  27. 

"  Immaculate  Conception,"  as  a  name  for  the  Lady  of  Lourdes,  5. 

Immortality,  Earthly,  333. 

Impressions,  Spiritual,  273. 

India,  its  wonderful  stories  concerning  the  Yogis,  16. — Necromantic 
practices,  62. 

Indian,  The  Red,  of  America,  his  ideas  similar  to  the  Scandinavian's, 
concerning  ghosts,  92. 

Inquisition,  280. 

Isaac,  The  patriarch,  "  meditating  at  twilight,"  128. 

Isatva  (one  of  the  Siddhis),  168. 

Isis  and  Osiris,  sent  to  earth  to  teach  men  the  art  of  mummifying,  20. 

Islam,  235. 

Iswara,  a  god,  179. 

Julandhara  Bandha,  166. 

Jamblichus'  reply  explaining  Egyptian  magic,  219. 

Japan,  sitting  in  the  ancestral  chamber,  resembles  a  family  council,  72. 

Japanese  souls,  69. 

Jeanne,  Mother,  278. 

Jehovah,  and  the  Book  of  Job,  5. 

Jesuits,  282, 

Jesus,  his  last  supper  a  festive  commemoration  only,  61. 

Jesus'  teaching  of  good  for  evil,  no  further  than  Lao-Tsee  in  his  decla- 
ration, 209. 

Jesus  of  Nazareth,  243. — Resurrection  of,  249. — On  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  297. 

Jews,  many  of  their  religious  beliefs  taken  from  the  Chaldeans,  30. — 
Their  religion  had  nothing  to  say  of  an  immortal  soul,  31. — Cap- 
tives of  the  Persians,  their  imitation  of  their  embalmment,  49. — 
Their  "show-bread,"  61. — Their  Scriptures  humored  the  095- 
mogony  of  the  times,  5. 

Jivatma,  infinite  spirit,  1S9. 

Jnanakasha,  conscience,  189. 

John  of  the  Cross's  trances,  198. 

John,  Saint,  of  the  Cross,  262. — His  writings,  267. 


366  INDEX. 

Johnson,  his  work  on  the  religions  of  China,  64. 

Johnston,  Charles,  article  in  the  "  Metaphysical  Magazine,"  202. 

Judaism,  has  no  reason  to  be  proud  of  its  Chaldean  inheritance,  31. 

Jupiter  Amnion,  he  sent  a  dream  to  Aphutus,  5. 

Justinian,  Emperor,  his   edict   suppressed   the    Neoplatonic  school  at 

Athens,  36. 
Kaivalya,  the  highest  end,  the  state  of  oneness.  183. 
Kabbalists,  329. 
Kada,  249. 

Kaldu,  or  Kaldi,  a  tribe  that  gave  name  to  all  Chaldea.  226. 
Kalevala,  The,  227. 

Kami  no  Michi,  Japanese  for  the  way  of  the  gods,  71. 
Kanda  (below  the  navel),  168. 
Kaneri,  249. 
Kant,  136. 
Kanthadi,  249. 
Kapalika,  249. 
Kapalki,  249. 
Kapila,  the  sage,  176. 
Kapilas'  25  categories  on  Tattvas,  179. 
Kardee,  the,  sect,  2. 
Karma,  the  doctrine  of,  14,  202. 
Karma  Rupa,  of  the  Hindus,  2. 
Karma  Yoga,  or  the  Yoga  of  works,  194. 
Kechari  Mudra,  175. 
Kempis,  Thomas  a,  315. 
Kiddle,  Mrs.,  her  spirit,  ir8. 
Kweishin,  or  "  communicating  spirits,"  62. 
King  Pravahanna,  202. 
King  Clovis,  233. 

Knowles,  John,  r,?  spiritual  homes,  114. 
Kojiki,  a  Japanese  history,  78. 
Korantaka,  249. 

Kula,  support  of  all  actions,  1S5. 
Kundalini,  167. 
Kumbhaka,  164. 
Kumbhakas,  there  are  8,  175. 
Lam,  a  word  to  be  repeated  by  the  practice r,  194. 
Land,  The,  of  the  fathers,  13. 
Lao-Tsee,  his  sayings,  138,  157. 

Last  Day,  Picture  of,  in  Italian  cathedral,  description,  51. 
Laya  yoga,  364,  316. 
Lecky,  on  Christian  asceticism,  259. 
Legge,  Note  in  "Texts  of  Taoism,"  136,  214. 


INDEX.  367 

Lenorment,  on  a  philosophical  Egyptian  god,  etc.,  217,  218.— Quoted 

re  the  Finns,  22S. 
Lesser  Siddhis,  of  Taoism, 
Lillie,  Arthur,  59. 
"Living  Flame  of  Love,"  277. 
Locomotion  in  the  spirit-world,  118. 
London,  Society  of  Psychic  Research,  127. 
Longfellow's  "  Hiawatha,"  250. 
Lovat,  Lord,  his  mounted  ghost,  83. 
Love,  Conjugial,  Swedenborg's  "  Heaven  and  Hell,"  99. 
Lowell,  his  "  Unfamiliar  Japan  "  quoted,  concerning  "  Shintoism,"  77. 
Lysander,  King,  besieged  Aphutus,  5. 
Lubbock,  His,  " Pre-historic  Times,"  quotes  Crantz,  on  the  Eskimos, 

147. 
Lucifer,  does  not  do  duty  in  Swedenborg's  Hell,  loi. 
Luther,  his  respect  for  relics,  59. 
Magdalena,  Maria,  a  Carmelite,  317. 
Magic,  Eg}'ptian,  reply  of  Jamblichus  concerning,  219. 
Magii,  an  hereditary  priesthood,  226. 
Magistrate,  The  supreme,  of  the  Chinese  Heaven,  205. 
Magokoro,  the  conscience,  75. 
Maha  Bandha,  166, 
Maha  Mudra,  166. 
Mahatma  Jnana  Guru  Yogi  Sabhapty  Swami,  author  of  Philosophy  and 

Science  of  Vedanta  and  Rajah  Yoga,  1S7. 
Maha  Vedha,  167. 
Mahavideha,  182. 
Mahima,  i63. 
Man,  The  composite,  Plotinus  quoted,  43. — The  origin  of,   11. — ^Vas 

made  that  God  might  be  happy,  11. 
Manthane,  249. 
Martin  Luther,  284. 
Mary,  Saint,  of  Egypt,  260. 
Masochists,  322. 
]Maspero,  Mons.,  on  "The  Ancient  History  of  the  Oriental  Peoples," 

its  aid  to  the  natural  history  of  the  Egyptian  soul,  21. — On  the 

existence  of  the  double  among  Egyptian  behef  s,  quoted,  23. 
Matsyendra,  249. 
Mauna,  185, 

Max  Muller,  on  the  Upanishads,  9. 
Meobominus,  a  historian,  318. 

"  Meditation  of  the  Tatwas  and  mastery  over  them,"  192. 
Mendes,  Mummy  of  Osiris  at,  25. 
Methods  of  practice  (Yoga),  293. 


368  INDEX. 

Mikadoism,  in  Japan,  its  effect  on  simple  ancestor  worship,  69. 

Mitigation,  Friars  of  the,  264. 

Modern  Spiritualism,  its  spiritual  world,  107. — On  the  soul,  i. 

Modes  of  communication  with  spirits,  72. 

Mohammed,  103,  104. 

Mohammedan  Yoga,  232. 

Moksha,  state  of  bliss,  168. 

Molinos,  Miguel,  280. 

Mongolian  type,  Chinese  and  Eskimos,  153. 

Morality,  ancestor  worship  enveloped  in  Shinto  has  none,  save  what  is 
written  in  the  heart  of  man,  74. 

Morality,  The,  of  Christendom,  135. 

Morality,  Religion  and,  135. 

Morality  and  Religion,  133. 

Moses,  104. — Priest  of  Egypt,  knew  all  that  was  taught  to  Solon  and 
Pythagoras,  5. — And  the  Cosmogony  of  the  Jews,  4. — On  Sinai,  297. 

Mother  Jeanne,  278. 

Motowori,  quoted,  by  Ilearn,  concerning  moral  ideas,  75. — Com- 
mentary, 78. 

Mount  Hera,  232. 

Mount  Tabor,  313. 

Mudras,  166,  167,  172. 

Mudra,  Kechari,  175. — Maha,  first  of  ten,  166. — Shambhavi,  173. 

Mukti,  deliverance,  168. 

Mula  Baudha,  165. 

Mulabandha,  origin  of  being,  185. 

Muladhara,  part  of  the  pelvic  region,  168. 

Muller,  about  yoga,  162. 

Mysteries,  Eleusinian,  299. 

Mystics,  The  Neoplatonists  were,  38. 

Nada,  304. — Sounds  heard  in  the  body,  316. 

Nadis,  sounds  coming  from  the  yogin's  own  breast,  164. 

Nakaza,  Japanese  for  "seat  in  the  midst,"  71. 

Nan  Po  Tzu  Kuei,  what  he  said  to  Nii  Yii,  215. 

Napoleon  III.  and  the  Spring  of  Lourdes,  5. 

Naradeva,  249. 

Nations,  Disputes  between,  150. 

Natural  Law,  A,  selects  the  bodies  (for  the  descent  to  earth  of  each 
soulX  Plotinus,  quoted,  41. 

"  Nature's  finer  forces,"  190. 

Nauli,  172. 

Nazareth,  Jesus  of,  243. 

Neoplatonism  on  the  Soul,  36. — Went  down  before  brute  force,  36. — 
Its  doctrines,  37. 


INDEX.  369 

Nescience:  Ignorance,  as  creator,  ii. 

Neuman,  John,  Catholic  Bishop,  309. 

New  birth,  329. 

Night,  The,  of  the  spirit,  276. 

Nihongi,  a  history  (Shinto),  78. 

Nii  Yii,  said  to  be  a  woman,  215. 

Nile  Delta,  their  ancient  inhabitants  and  their  beliefs,  21. 

Niranjana,  249. 

Nit,  or  Hathor,  still  Nit  or  Hathor,  25. 

Nityanatha,  249. 

Niyama,  constant  consciousness  of  unity  with  Brahman,  185. 

Nome,  25. 

Norito,  prayer  book  (Shinto),  78. 

Notes  on  the  composite  man,  from  Fleming's  "Vocabulary  of  Philoso- 
phy," etc..  43. 

Nun,  The  Devil  and  the,  265. 

Occult  powers,  Messages  from  the,  4. 

Occupations  in  spirit-world,  120. 

Old  Taoism,  not  pessimistic,  210. 

Old  Testament,  reveals  only  the  rudimentary  remains  of  a  virtually 
extinct  belief  of  the  doctrine  of  immortality,  31. 

Olives,  Jesus  on  the  Mount  of,  297. 

Osiris,  5. — And  Isis,  sent  to  earth  to  teach  men  the  art  of  mummify- 
ing, 20. — Mummy  of,  at  Mendes,  25. — A  mortal  summoned  before 
him,  "came  in  fear  and  trembling,  for  none  among  gods  or  men 
dare  look  him  in  the  face,"  25. — Defunct,  still  Osiris,  25. 

"Our  Homes  and  our  Employments  Hereafter,"  by  Dr.  M.  Peebles, 
no. 

Owen,  Robert,  his  teaching  the  Chinese  maxim  that  the  heart  of  man 
is  naturally  good,  76. 

Padmasana,  a  posture,  164. 

Pagan  feasts.  The,  copied  by  the  Church  of  Rome,  61. 

Paganism,  The  Church  of  Rome  greedy  for  its  spoils,  60. 

Palaeolithic  cave-dwellers  and  the  Eskimos,  152. 

Paracelsus,  285. 

Puraka,  term  for  inhalation,  164. 

Parry,  Sir  Edward,  quoted,  the  peacefulness  of  the  Eskimos,  144. 

Parsees,  their  mode  of  disposing  of  animal  remains,  49. 

Patanjali,  The  Sutras  of,  178. 

Paul  the  Hermit,  258. 

Paul  de  Regla,  M.,  253. 

Paul,  his  distinct  assertion  about  spiritual  resurrection,  51. 

Paul's  theory  rejected,  52. 


370  INDEX. 

Peebles,  Dr.  M.,  quoting  Conwell's  "Travels  in  China"  in  his  book 

"Around  the  World,"  66.  —  "Our  Homes  and  Our  Employments 

Hereafter,"  no. 
Penance,  308. 

Pen,  the  Quaker,  his  dealings  with  the  Indians,  159. 
Perfection,  329. 
Persians,    their   belief   in    bodily   resurrection,    49. —  The    old,    they 

punished,  the  burning,  burying  or  exposing  to  air,  or  casting  into 

water  animal  remains,  58. 
Personation,  72. 

Phallic  emblems  in  1872,  removed  in  Japan,  73. 
Phallicism,  belongs  to  ancestor  worship,  73. 
Phenomena,  called  supernatural,  2. 
Philosophic  Gods  (3)  in  China,  205. 
Philosophy,  School  of,  no  match  for  an  organized  church,   36. — And 

science  of  Vedanta  and  Rajah  Yoga,  187. 
Phtah,  of  Memphis,  became  at  death,  Sokaris,  25. 
Pingala,  The,  164. 
Plato,  the  Greek  system,  in  his  time,   32. — On  re-incarnation,  quoted 

from  the  "Timaeus,"  34,  259. 
Platonism,  old  and  new,  600  years  intervening,  35. 
Plotinus,  in  the  Enneads,  on  the  divine  law  of  nature,  quoted,  14. — 

Quoted,  as  regards  the  perfecting  of  the  body,  16. 
Pope,   The,  addressed   by  the  Emperor  of  China,  touching   ancestor 

worship,  64. 
Porphery,  disciple  of  Saccas,  arranged  the  Enneads,  37. — Answered,  221. 
Postel,  Guillaume,  278,  299. 
"Posthumous  Humanity,"  by  M.  D'Assier,  3. 
Power,  The  great,  191. 
Prabhudeva,  249, 
Practice,  Yoga,  Results  of,  and  indications  of   progress,   310. — Tao, 

215. — Yoga,  161. 
Pragapate  (Visva),  11. 
Prakamya,  168. 
Prana,  the  great  breath,  190. 

Pranasamyama,  constant  obstruction  of  the  senses,  1S5. 
Prana,  the  breath,  185. 

Pranyama,  the  breathing  practice,  164. — Breathings,  190. 
Prapti,  168. 
Prasad,  Mr.,  191. 
Pratibha  (intuition),  182, 

Pratyahara,  resolving  all  objects  into  Atman,  1S6. 
Pratyshara,  a  stage  of  yoga,  1 70. 
Pravahanna,   King,  the  priest's  son  at  his  Court,  200: — Gave  out  the 

Rajah  philosophy,  202. 


INDEX.  371 

Preliminary  Yoga,  i8o. 

Priests  of  Baal,  gashing  themselves  with  knives,  6i. 

Primitive  Hindu  scripture,  163. 

Prithivi,  191. 

Probable  origin  of  belief  in  a  spiritual  world,  2. 

Progress,  Results  of  practice  and  indications  of,  310. 

Protestants  sensitive  to  the  ridicule  of  the  dogma  of  resurrection,  54. 

Protestantism,  American,  135. 

Prudery,  American,  74. 

Psychic  Research,  Society  of,  London,  127. 

Punishment,  here  and  hereafter,  Plotinus  quoted,  46. 

Purusa  (Soul),  178. 

Pythagoras,  5. — A  sitting  posture  appropriate  to  prayer,  71. 

Queen  of  Heaven  (Japanese),  313. 

Quietism,  280. 

Ra,  a  supreme  god  whom  the  early  Assyriologists  believed  they  had 

found,  27. 
Race,  Tauranian,  226. 

Rajah  Yoga  Philosophy  of  S'rimat  Sankaracharya,  184. 
Rajah,  Vedanta  has  precedence  of  it,  163. 
Rauzat-us-Safa,  237,  251. 
Rawlinson,  Professor,  his  "Religions  of  the  Ancient  World"  concerning 

embalmment,  20. 
Rechaka,  term  for  exhalation,  164. 
Regla,  M.  Paul  de,  253. 

Re-incarnation,  not  dreamed  of  by  the  Chaldeans,  29. — From  Plato's 
"  Timceus,"  quoted,  34. — Dwelling  place  between  re-incarnations 
of  other  souls  than  sinful  ones,  Plotinus  quoted,  47. 
Relic  worship,  58. 

Religion  in  general,  125. — Morality  and,  133,  135. 

Results,  Subjective,  of  Tao  attainment,  214. — Of  practice  and  indica- 
tions of  progress,  310. 
Resurrection,   bodily,  belief  of  the  Persians,  49.— Of  the  body,  the 

Egyptian  belief,  19. — Of  Jesus,  249. 
Revelation,  38. 

Revenaut  (returner),  a  ghost,  80. 
Rewards  and  punishments,  Chinese  book  of,  130. 
Richmond,  Cora  L.  V.,  A,  A.  Ballou,  by  the  mouth  of,  concerning  the 

spirit-world,  113. 
Romans,  The,  and  Greeks,  united  the  soul  to  what  they  called  its  image, 

idol,  or  shade,  in  order  to  punish  or  reward  it,  32. 
Roman  souls,  32. — Stoicism,  257.— Stoics  as  yogas,  256. 
Rome,  Church  of,  greedy  for  the  spoils  of  Paganism,  60. — The  Church 
of,  its  purgatory,  134. 


372  INDEX. 

Sahara,  249. 

Saccas,  Ammonius,  founder  of  the  Neoplatonic  school,  37. 

Saddism,  323. 

Sahajoli,  167. 

Saint  Anthony,  261. 

Saint  Benedict,  26S. 

Saint  John  of  the  Cross,  262. 

Saint  Mary  of  Egypt,  260. 

Saint  Sylvia,  259. 

Saint  Theresa,  262. 

Sankara,  states  that  the  soul  has  become  God  by  being  God,  15. 

Sankaracharya,  S'rimat,  his  philosophy,  184. — On  the  Vedanta,  186. — 
His  sayings,  202,  295. 

Sankhya  Yoga,  1 76. 

Sara,  Vedant,  295. 

Saul  of  Tarsus,  104. 

Schopenhauer,  his  doubting  reasons  for  presence  of  religion  in  the 
world,  67. — On  sense  of  shame  with  the  Eskimos,  148. 

Schlatter,  American  healer,  249. 

"Science  of  breath,"  190,  199,  305. 

Scripture,  Primitive  Hindu,  163. 

Seance,  sitting,  similar  to  the  term  Upanishad,  71. 

Sects  who  believe  that  the  life  of  man  on  earth  is  a  succession  of  lives 
of  one  soul  in  many  bodies,  12. 

Self,  the  better  rendering  of  "soul,"  12. 

Semites,  who  descended  from  Chaldean  Abraham  discarded  the  im- 
mortality conceived  by  his  Chaldean  fathers,  31. 

Sentmi,  249. 

Servetus,  saved  from  Calvin's  full  measure  of  wrath,  198. 

Shakati  Chalma,  one  of  the  ten  Mudras,  167. 

Shambhavi-mudra,  173. 

Shavasana,  172. 

Shinto,  The,  very  different  from  Mikadoism,  Buddhism  and  Confucian- 
ism in  Japan,  69. 

Show  bread.  The,  of  the  Jews,  61. 

Shvetaketu,  the  priest's  son  at  the  Court  of  King  Pravahanna,  200. 

Sibyl,  The  Cumcean,  311. 

Siddhas,  possessors  of  miraculous  powers,  166. 

Siddhi,  249. 

Siddhis,  miraculous  powers,  166. — Eight,  16S. 

Signorelli,  Luca,  his  picture,  in  an  Italian  cathedral,  of  the  last  day,  51. 

Sinai,  Moses  on,  297. 

Singing  combat  of  the  Eskimos,  147. 

Sinologists  sought  for  the  source  of  Shintoism  in  books,  78. 


INDEX.  373 

Siva,  i66,  205,  249. 
Sleep  of  the  Witches  on  the  rack,  198. 
Smith,  Joe,  233. 

Social  virtue,  The  evolution  of,  13S. 
Sokaris,  in  life,  was  Phtah,  at  Memphis,  25. 
Solomon,  277. 
Solon,  5. 
Sonna,  The,  235. 

Soul,  is  Brahman,  12. — Descent  of,  into  body,  reasons  for  it,  given  by 
Plotinus,  40. — The  nature  of  the,  12.— In  Neoplatonism,  30. — 
The  "Enneads,"  quoted,  38. — Spiritual  canticle  of  the,  by  John 
of  the  Cross,  277. — Its  union  with  God,  12. — And  body,  the  com- 
posite man,  Plotinus  quoted,  43. 
Souls,  Chinese,  49. — Japanese,  69.— Descend  into  bodies,  why,  Ploti- 
nus quoted,  45. — Presence  needed  for  bodies,  Plotinus  quoted,  45. — 
Relation  of  individual,  to  the  universal  souls,  Plotinus  quoted,  39. 
Spectres,  3. — The  cause  of  belief,  among  primitive  men,  in  a  world  of 

spirits,  6. — Their  effect  upon  intelligent  minds,  7. 
Spells,  307. 

Spirit,  Holy,  272. — The  night  of  the,  276. 
Spirits — their  supposed  clothing  in  the  spirit-world,  115. — Food,  119. — 

Locomotion,  118. — Occupations,  120. — Dwellings,  no. 
Spiritualism,  American,  64.— In  China,  record  of  an  Imperial  decree 

against  it  by  the  Emperor  Yao,  67. 
Spring  of  Lourdes,  its  powers,  5. 

Spurgeon,  sermon  of,  on  Hell  and  bodily  resurrection,  56. 
S'rimat  Sankaracharya,  his  philosophy,  1S4. 

Stephen,  Saint,  his  cruel  murder,  and  Saint  Paul's  part  in  it,  132. 
Stewart,  Balfour,  Professor,  his  theory  in  "The  Unseen  Universe,"  92. 
Stoics,  Roman,  as  yogis,  256. 
Stoicism,  Roman,  257. 
Stupidity  in  yoga,  273. 
Subjective  results  of  Tao  attainment,  214. 
Sufis,  The,  235. 
Sumirians,  226. 

Supreme  magistrate,  as  per  "  Book  of  the  Way  and  of  Virtue,"  205. 
Surananda,  249. 
Sushumna,  166. 

Sutras  of  Patanjali,  178.— Of  the  Sage  Kapila,  176. 
Swatmaram,  his  work,  176,  194. 

Swedenborg,  Emanuel,  his  belief  in  a  spiritual  world,  2.— His  account 
of  it,  13. — The  cosmogony  and  anthropology  of  his  system,  85. — 
His  discovery  was  not   of   globular  world,  92.— His  revelations, 


874  INDEX. 

103. — Swedenborgianism,  105. — His  world  of  idlers,  122. — State- 
ment, re  the  possibility  of  a  spiritual  world,  85,  94,  107. 

Table-moving,  72. 

Taghima  (one  of  the  eight  Siddhis),  168. 

Taijas,  the  luminiferous  ether,  191. — Fire,  191. 

Tao  attainment,  subjective  results,  214. 

Tao,  a  being,  211. — The  name  of  the  old  Chinese  religion,  71. 

Taoism,  disturbed  by  Confucius  in  China,  205. — Old,  not  pessimistic, 
210. — Preceded  Confucius,  62. — Old,  its  morality,  134. 

Tao  practice,  215. 

"Tao-Te-King,"  concerning  Hindu  yogis,  quoted,  212. — Its  standard 
of  human  conduct,  134. 

Taite,  Professor,  his  theory  in  "The  Unseen  Universe,"  92. 

Talmage,  DeWitt,  Rev.  T.,  his  book  "Pathway  of  Life,"  affirms 
bodily  resurrection,  55. 

Tappas  (meditation),  299. 

Tarsus,  Saul  of,  104. 

Tatwic  Yoga,  190. 

Taylor,  Robert,  his  "Diegesis"  wrong  in  supposing  Jesus  to  have  been 
an  essene,  254. 

Taylor,  Thomas,  his  English  translation  of  Plotinus'  "  Enneads,"  38. 

Tauranian  race,  226. 

Tellai  (perfection),  329. 

Ten  Commandments,  The,  teaching  of  Jesus,  133. 

Themis,  Anhouri  at,  25. 

Theresa,  Saint,  262. 

Theurgy,  218. 

Tiles,  mediums  for  chronicling  events,  employed  by  the  Chaldeans,  30. 

"Timseus,"  The,  of  Plato  quoted  concerning  the  creation,  34. 

Touches  of  God,  310. 

Tourmou,  Mummy  of,  at  Heliopolis,  25. 

Trance-speaking,  72. 

Transfiguration  of  Jesus,  251. 

Fravishis  of  the  Parsees,  228. 

Triads,  of  the  early  Assyriologists  erroneously  supposed,  27. 

Trinity,  The  Christian,  according  to  Saint  Augustine,  205. 

"True  Christian  Religion,"  of  Swedenborg,  loi. 

Tulla  haUiorhiri,  of  the  Finns,  229. 

Tulla-intoon,  of  the  Finns,  229. 

Tatwas,  The,  meditation  and  mastery  over  them,  192. 

Tyaga,  recognition  of  Brahman  as  being  everywhere,  185. 

Uddiana  Bandha,  165,  175. 

Uigami,  used  to  signify  Shinto  parish  temple,  means  "family  god,"  71. 

Union,  its  meaning  in  yoga,  325. 


INDEX.  375 

Universe,  The,  as  conceived  by  the  Hindus,  ii. 

Upanishads,  a  part  of  the  Vedas,  8.— Means  ' '  sitting  near  a  person, "  9. 

Vasitva  (one  of  the  eight  Siddhis),  168. 

Vayu,  tangiferous  ether,  191. 

Vedanta  yoga,  163. 

Vedantism,  162. 

Vedant  Sara,  on  the  way  to  the  knowledge  of  Brahman,  1S6,  295. 

Vedha,  Maha,  167. 

Vedic  hymns,  13. 

Vigils,  their  value  in  yoga,  305. 

Viparitakarani  Bandha,  166. 

Virgin,  The,  of  the  world,  18. 

Virupaksha,  249. 

Vishnu,  205. 

Visva  (Pragapate),  11. 

Vocabulary  of  philosophy,  Fleming's,  quoted  in  note,  concerning  the 
"Ideas"  of  Plato,  43. 

Wainamoinen,  ancient  Finnic  bard,  230,  249. 

Wesley  on  music,  305. 

West,  Benjamin,  turned  out  of  church  for  painting  pictures,  120. 

Williams,  Professor,  his  "  Middle  Kingdom  "  quoted,  62. 

Witches'  sleep,  198. 

Wolseley,  Gen.  Sir  Garnet,  his  assertion  that  the  Chinese  have  all  the 
military  virtues,  63. 

World,  The  origin  of  the,  18.— The  possibility  of  a  spiritual,  con- 
sidered, 80.— A  spiritual,  its  possibility  further  considered,  85,  94, 
107. — The  spiritual,  of  modern  spiritualism,  107. 

Worship,  Relic,  58. 

Writings  of  Saint  John  of  the  Cross,  267. 

Yao,  The  Emperor,  his  decree  about  Chinese  spiritualism,  67. 

Yama,  restraint  over  the  senses,  185. — King  (death),  327. 

Yoga,  may  be  practiced  either  with  or  without  devotion ;  its  manuals 
mostly  made  up  from  the  Upanishads ;  its  Hindu  modes  of  prac- 
tice, 15. — As  a  process  of  evolution,  345. — Akkadian,  226. — Chinese, 
205.— Christian,  258.— Cloistered,  283.— Egyptian,  217.— Of  the 
Essenes,  254. — Hatha  Pradipika,  163. — Hebrew,  239. — Hindu, 
tranquil  contemplation,  150,  161. — In  Hinduism,  means  that  hav- 
ing always  been  Brahman,  a  man,  by  means  of  certain  practices, 
comes  to  know  it,  15. — Karma,  or  the  Yoga  of  work,  194. — Laya, 
304.— Mohammedan,  232.— Methods  of  practice,  293.— Practice, 
161.— Preliminary,  i8o.— Rajah,  The  philosophy  of  S'rimat  San- 
karacharya,  184. 

Yogaists,  Rajah,  354. 

Yogas,  Roman  stoics  as,  256. — Sankhya,  176. 


376  INDEX. 

Yoga,  in  America,  127. — Tatwic,  190. — Vasishtha,  307, 

Yogi,  The  perfected,  does  not  pray  at  all,  10. 

Zazara  (drum-cymbal),  304. 

Zeus,  the  Egyptian  Osiris,  the  Assyrian  Bel,  the  Phcenician  Bacchus, 

and  the  Jewish  Jehovah,  10. 
Zoroaster,  103,  297. 


17NI.VERSrTT 


1                     14  DAY  USE                       1 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

This  book  is  due  on  Se  fi&'SMilfiped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subjea  to  immediate  recalL 

\jiivuaa    C^-eu(] 

C^' 

INTER-LfBRARlf 

LOAN 

■  ■'    24  1373 

-                '< 

■X} 

:;:■     -     < 

:j     ^     u. 

:C.  \IIJ\JL  10  1371 

J 

'^:''^'.  '".z       r  i  7 

LD21-3.'3m-8,'72                                  General  Library 
(Q4189sl0)476 — A-32                    University  of  California 
Berkeley 

'D  0719; 


